Now is the time to act

THE monsoon this year in Pakistan seems to be red in tooth and claw. But never in recent memory has there been a monsoon that has caused such colossal destruction and human distress in so short a time. The season is only starting but nature has been unrelenting and is showing no sign of easing up. First it was tropical cyclone Gonu which skirted Balochistan in the first week of June, bringing heavy rain and gusting winds that destroyed hundreds of homes across the south of the province. Much worse was to come. Less than three weeks later, Balochistan took a direct hit from yet another cyclone screaming in from the Arabian Sea. The damage this time has been horrific. Over two million in Balochistan are in severe distress, lacking adequate shelter and the most basic of supplies like food and drinking water. The confirmed death toll has risen to over 100 and is expected to climb because dozens are still missing. Some 15 districts have been hit hard by the storm and at least ten lie in complete ruin.

Thousands, meanwhile, remain marooned in Sindh, with the death toll increasing as the rains keep pouring. Canal breaches have inundated hundreds of villages and it is feared that water levels will rise, not recede, in the days to come. Earlier, in Karachi, a near-hurricane strength storm on June 23 killed over 200 — a figure disputed by the chief minister and the city nazim. In the NWFP and the tribal areas, flash floods and landslides have already claimed nearly 60 lives. In Chitral, not the most accessible of areas in the best of times, road links have been disrupted and key bridges swept away by hill torrents. A large chunk of a glacier has also broken off and is now moving towards low-lying areas after flattening at least 20 houses and a village mosque. Battagram and Mansehra have also been badly hit. What is being witnessed across the country is extreme and erratic weather and the ‘inconvenient truth’ of climate change can no longer be ignored.

The Met Office, which has been spot on with its predictions, is forecasting more heavy rains in Sindh and Balochistan over the next few days and there is every likelihood that an already disastrous situation may take a turn for the worse. In this time of calamity, the relief operation needs to be bolstered and made more effective. A full-scale and coordinated disaster management plan must be activated forthwith. While the navy and army have been doing a commendable job, particularly in Balochistan, the efforts of the respective civil administrations have left a lot to be desired. Complaints of official apathy or inefficacy are pouring in and the affected people are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pace of the relief effort. The task that lies ahead is mammoth in scale and the government cannot shirk its responsibility. Over two million people have to be rescued or provided shelter and provisions on an emergency basis. Later, when the worst is over, every effort must be made to rehabilitate those who have lost all that they possessed — homes, businesses, crops, seed, livestock. The government in Islamabad likes to claim that it has filled the country’s coffers like never before. Helping the distressed with relief and rehabilitation will be the test of this affluence.

Karachi civic finances

IT’S more of the same medicine which has failed to heal the many wounds of this metropolis. Amidst ruckus by opposition members on Saturday, Nazim Mustafa Kamal characterised the city district government’s budget for 2007-08 as a historic document having an outlay of over Rs45.69 billion. The estimates for the city’s civic management show an increase of more than a billion rupees over last year’s figures. However, education gets only 18 per cent of the total outlay against 20 per cent in 2006-07; health gets no more than a paltry seven per cent, down from last year’s 18 per cent. Little wonder, then, that the two social sectors will remain as poor as now. The Rs29 billion earmarked for development may appear to be a large sum. But this should be seen in the context of Karachi’s falling status on the global liveability index for cities, based on indicators like health, education and security. The city finished at 175th position, down from last year’s 170. Conspicuous by its absence from the nazim’s budget speech was the account sheet of the outgoing year’s expenditure. Opposition members demanding accountability were waved aside by the deputy nazim as usual.

The 2007-08 budget promises better water supply and sewerage services for the impoverished Lyari, Baldia and Orangi towns. How it is going to do this with a measly Rs740 million allocated for municipal services in a city the size of Karachi remains a question mark. This while the deputy nazim’s ‘secretariat’ gets over Rs150 million for its running expenses. By comparison, the city district’s 18 towns and 178 union councils get no more than Rs2.6 billion. The CDGK’s pledge last year of establishing a community policing system at a cost of Rs20 million remains unfulfilled, with no explanation offered for this and other failed promises. The budget shows a surplus of a few million like last year, which remain unaccounted for. Yet again, the two pressing needs of affordable housing and a mass transit system for the mega-city found no mention in this year’s proposals. The CDGK cannot be held answerable for promises not made.

For better sanitary conditions

THERE are quite a few lessons to learn from a training workshop on sanitation held recently in Islamabad. About 50 community activists of the Rural Support Programme came together to attend a workshop on how to mobilise people into improving sanitary conditions in and around their homes. This was not a run-of-the-mill workshop in which various speakers expounded on the importance of sanitation or the dangers of defecating in the open. Instead these things were explained and the participants were shown how they could improve their lives by, for example, building their own toilets in less than two hours. A female community activist shared her experience of going door to door in her village and explaining to women the dangers of using open spaces as toilets. She said that in 20 days all the households in her village had built their own toilets, primarily because once they understood that they were ingesting other peoples’ waste, they immediately took into action. This method of motivating people to improve their lives is an example that must be emulated in other parts of the country. Such community activism needs to be encouraged by other NGOs.

It is tragic that the government has all but absolved itself of providing basic facilities like clean drinking water and a good hygienic environment. It is disgraceful that in this day and age people should use open spaces near their homes as toilets. The government last year sponsored an ‘open defecation-free environment’ scheme to teach people the dangers of relieving themselves in the open, both from a health and an environmental point of view. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this scheme provided it is pursued with the involvement of the community in different parts of the country.

Making life safe for the vulnerable

FOR the past five weeks, the country has been witnessing nature’s wrath that began with flash floods in the NWFP. These later spread to the coastal regions. Hundreds have died in Karachi, Hyderabad, Kech, Jafarabad and other areas. Thousands of people have been displaced. Some have moved towards safer places after losing their houses, livelihood and domestic assets.

What has made matters worse is that the majority of the victims belong to low-income groups whose capacity to rebuild their assets is limited, especially in cases where the breadwinners have been lost to the vagaries of the weather.

Trends in environmental changes all over the world show that the real challenge before governments is to make the life and property of the vulnerable safe from the forces of nature. Some strategists have coined the term ‘disaster management’ for dealing with this scenario. A focused review informs us that this term falls short of encompassing many major issues that deserve attention.

Take settlements, their geo-physical characteristics, the threats to their existence under specific circumstances, the ability (or the lack of it) of the people to confront disasters and institutional strengths and weaknesses.

Much of the coastal belt in Balochistan and parts of Sindh face a pattern of irregular rainwater drainage and water shortage. Whereas detailed climate and ocean studies are needed to establish the causes behind weather patterns, it is obvious that rainwater recharge and drainage are not being handled efficiently. The catchments around Mirani dam, the southern parts of Badin and Thatta and the islands of Karachi form vulnerable areas where colossal damage has been inflicted on settlements following poor drainage and inundations after heavy rains.

Consolidation of coastlines through mangrove plantations, increasing vegetative cover and conserving the coastal ecology are some of the important steps that need to be taken without delay. Basic topographical studies can be used to determine strategies for water management — whether these are for dry spells or rains, including cyclonic weather. Locations where danger is imminent can also be identified. Here building and developing settlements should be prohibited — a ban that is best enforced through raising awareness and cooperative action.

Occupational hazards, especially for fishermen and boat and trawler operators, are a critical issue. Each calamity not only causes loss of lives but also of livelihood in the form of torn nets, ruined boats and damaged hardware. The fishermen community is plunged into debt. Their assets, mostly acquired on loans from informal money lenders, are more or less ruined and have very little chance of being rebuilt because of the worry of recurring mishaps.

Such communities require assistance in many areas. Insurance services should be extended on easy terms, and innovative products should be introduced to suit the requirements of these vulnerable communities. Compensation must not only be announced, it must also be implemented. Communication and life-saving services should be enhanced, and training and support from relevant organisations and institutions such as the Pakistan Navy must be facilitated.

Through cooperative effort, the relevant government bodies must warn the fishermen against moving into deep waters, before a storm strikes. There must be a routine ban on all fishing activities during periods of high calamity. Rescue posts and operations must be structured on a permanent basis in order to familiarise the concerned target groups.

The current downpours have been destroying standing crops, the sole source of subsistence for thousands of small land owners and farmers. It is less costly to take precautions than arrange for doles to those who lose their crop. These objectives can only be achieved through careful observation, suitable planning and proper implementation.

Public infrastructure worth billions of rupees has already been reported as damaged. Preliminary reconnaissance has shown sizable tracts of the Makran Coastal Highway as damaged, intercity/district link roads washed out and retaining walls that constituted local dams destroyed. Needless to say, this infrastructure was built at the expenditure of scarce national resources.It will take years, if not decades, to reconstruct the infrastructure. There cannot be a greater eye-opener than this catastrophe.

The logic of planning that determined the features of roads, highways and electricity grids, the engineering standards that formed the basis of the execution of works, and implementation must all be carefully examined to identify, and hence rectify, the faults.

One needs to admit mistakes for only then can corrective measures be taken. For instance, television reports showed that sections of the coastal highway were built without having in place provisions for flash floods. This eventually wreaked havoc and contributed significantly to the disaster. Care must be taken not to allow avoidable mistakes to turn into crimes.

A tried and tested formula for ensuring sustainable development and survival is through the mobilisation of local community resources and capacities. Half a century ago, this approach was implemented by social scientist Dr Akhter Hameed Khan in Comilla district, former East Pakistan. Conceived and applied in the disaster-prone terrains of Bengal, the model showed that through low-cost but simple techniques, far-reaching changes could be brought about in rural contexts.

The model also demonstrated that a more solid structure could be built by incorporating solutions based on local wisdom. Pakistan has seen many such experiences. Rural support programmes of various scales and profiles, microfinance outlets, private microcredit banks, donor-funded schemes, NGO-based initiatives and the like have been introduced with varying results.

One aspect appears common to all — the relatively short span of the effectiveness of the solution. Times have changed and so have realities. Monetary resources can now be mobilised in less time and with less effort than before. Technological advancements, particularly in the domain of communication, have reduced both virtual and physical distances. There is now a wealth of information that if disseminated properly can improve the basic standards of life.

The prerequisites of these steps include education, awareness and social mobilisation. Instead of increasing the number of dependent souls, policymakers must aim to reduce the role of the government from that of a direct actor to one of a useful catalyst.It is important to note that the print and electronic media are doing a commendable job of reporting on the recent weather crisis, thus not allowing the government’s hollow claims and finger-pointing to cut much ice with the public. The media can do a greater service by providing moral support to public-spirited individuals and institutions that are trying to mobilise community action in different parts of the country, especially in vulnerable locations.

There are many success stories from across the world which can be communicated to motivate the masses. The appropriate efforts of local bodies, the NGOs and community action groups can be broadcast as a crucial means of support.

For getting input, conducting basic documentation, evolving networks of community action groups and interacting with the corporate and private sector, locality resource centres may be formed. These low-cost, low-profile institutions have proven effective in many parts of Pakistan. Without relying on the support of donor agencies, indigenous responses in vulnerable areas can be evolved.

The present disaster must be taken as a final wake-up call. Each year, poverty-stricken communities suffer a ruthless face at the hands of nature. The lessons of this should not be allowed to fade away from the vision of policymakers, who, it seems, have already forgotten the catastrophic earthquake of Oct 8, 2005.

Democrats step up

FIRST gun control, now fuel economy. Congressional Democrats still have a lot of work ahead to get their groundbreaking bills past both houses and the president's desk, but you can't say they're not leading a radical change in direction.

On June 13, the House passed what could become the first major gun-control law in a decade, a bill aimed at strengthening a federal database used in background checks for gun buyers. A week later, the Senate approved an energy bill that would improve mileage for the nation's automotive fleet for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Democrats still haven't forced a troop reduction in Iraq or put their stamp on the nation's backward immigration policies, but their surprising success in other areas is worthy of praise.

Not that Democrats deserve all the credit. The gun bill was a bipartisan effort that passed by acclamation after it won the blessing of the National Rifle Assn., while 20 Republicans — nearly half the 43 who voted on the measure — backed the fuel economy bill. Still, these measures would have been inconceivable while Republicans controlled both houses during the first six years of the Bush administration, a period characterized by the disgraceful decision to allow a decade-old assault weapons ban to expire in 2004 and successive energy bills focused on maximizing fossil fuel production at the expense of the environment.

––Los Angeles Times