| July 31, 2003 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424 |
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Averting health disaster
Saving NWFP’s wetlands
THE US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, who is on a visit to South Asia, was apprised of Pakistan’s security concerns on Tuesday. At a time when Islamabad is entangled in geostrategic problems of the most serious kind, it is understandable that these are taken up from time to time with governments with which it shares a common interest in the region, and the United States is one of them. Pakistan-US ties have assumed significant dimensions in the wake of the American military operations in post-9/11 Afghanistan. The two key issues on which General Richard Myers was briefed were the tension on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the situation in Iraq.
While taking America into confidence, it is also important that Pakistan’s leadership should itself be clear about its geostrategic concerns and the approach it believes is most feasible and pragmatic in the situation the country finds itself in. Islamabad does indeed need to fine-tune its strategy on certain matters which include such issues as our relations with Afghanistan, our undertaking to assist in the current campaign against Al Qaeda and the sending of troops to Iraq. Any wavering on these matters opens the government to pressures from all quarters. Take Afghanistan for instance. We find ourselves in an unenviable situation, which is partly of our own making. The seeds were sown in the 1980s when General Ziaul Haq led the country into playing the role of a frontline state against the Soviets in Kabul. Next, the ISI chose to involve Islamabad in the Afghan civil war. After the events of September 2001, Pakistan has been trapped in a painful dilemma. It can now withdraw support to the US war on terror at its own risk. But continued cooperation with Washington has provoked the militants, the religious parties and the nationalists in the country creating problems of a different kind for President Pervez Musharraf’s government.
In this context, it is encouraging that the government has sought to boost its ties with Kabul. Islamabad has emphatically denied the charge that it seeks to intervene in Afghanistan or has allowed anybody on this side of the border to fish in the troubled waters of Afghanistan. But our Afghan experience of the eighties and nineties warrants the utmost caution on this score. There is need to adopt a hands-off policy in Afghanistan in our own strategic and political interest and leave no one in doubt about it.
Similarly, the American request for Pakistani troops for Iraq is another matter calling for an unambiguous position. Although the president has said that he would consider sending troops to Baghdad only under the umbrella of a UN resolution, the issue appears to be popping up again and again. Obviously, the US is very keen to get a number of countries to send their forces to Iraq to ease the pressure on the US occupation forces, and Pakistan is among these chosen ones. But this is something Islamabad can ill afford to do, given the circumstances in which the war in Iraq took place. There is need to adopt a firm stand on this question. In fact, Pakistan would be well advised to keep out of Iraq until the United States hands over responsibility of reconstructing and rehabilitating that war-torn country to the United Nations. Since this is not on the cards at present, our position should be stated without equivocation.
THE standing rain and flood water in the affected cities and districts of Sindh, if not cleared out soon, could cause widespread health problems. Given humid conditions, standing water in towns and countryside can become an ideal breeding ground for flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Clearing up the streets in the aftermath of the rain and flood should, therefore, be the first priority of the authorities concerned. Relief activities being undertaken in the affected districts of the province after the declaration of emergency on Sunday last by the Sindh government should not be restricted to rescue operations alone; pre-emptive action against possible outbreak of epidemics must also be part of the emergency relief effort. As of now, conditions prevailing in the rain-affected areas can cause an outbreak of epidemics like cholera, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, malaria and hepatitis. The health department, which has a significant presence across the province through its hospitals, dispensaries and the network of basic health units, must spring to action.
The government should ensure that medicines, doctors and paramedical staff are available at public health care facilities to deal with any health-related emergencies. The provision of safe drinking water at the relief camps as well as in people’s homes can play a vital role in eliminating one of the major causes of the spread of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, the government has failed to utilize the state-owned media for the purpose of disseminating awareness-raising messages. The role of the state-owned electronic media is restricted to broadcasting regular news and entertainment programmes while the rain emergency is in force. One also notes with regret that the radio and television channels provided no guidance to the people of Karachi during the traffic jams that had trapped hundreds of thousands of motorists last Monday. This untapped public resource must be activated to apprise people of the do’s and don’ts in the aftermath of the rain so as to minimize their suffering and to ensure good health. In the days to come, as flood waters begin to recede, the municipalities should ensure that all affected areas are sanitized. If necessary, the services of the plant protection department can be hired to spray insecticides by air.
THE sorry state of the NWFP’s Kheshki wetlands site is symptomatic of the neglect the province’s natural resources have suffered for quite some time. And now, when the monsoon season is on, it is quite ironic to hear that an internationally recognized and protected wetland situated in the Nowshera district has almost disappeared. According to a report, illegal hunting, environmental degradation and a change in irrigation patterns have dried up the Kheshki reservoir. Home in the autumn and winter season to thousands of migratory birds from Russia and Central Asia, Kheshki is now frequented only by hunters bent on killing the few birds that still make it their home.
Kheshki is a protected site under the Ramsar convention, an international treaty that provides a framework for member governments to conserve wetlands inside their borders. Pakistan is a signatory to the convention. Thus, the government should have fulfilled its obligations by protecting sites such as the Kheshki wetland. This does not mean that those living in its environs be prohibited from using its resources just for the sake of the migratory birds. Rather, the use of the wetland’s water should be regulated in such a way that the local population continues to benefit from it without denying hospitality to the migratory birds. Other than help provide sanctuary to the birds, conserving such a site would also be a boon for nature-lovers and anglers and add to the province’s natural beauty. The provincial government’s ban on hunting at wetlands, especially in Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan, is obviously not working and needs to be enforced. Meanwhile, the provincial wildlife department has claimed that proposals have been forwarded to the government to bring Kheshki back to life. The earlier they are approved the better.