THE flash floods of 2010 wrought havoc on an unprecedented scale across Pakistan, sweeping away crops, cattle-head, roads and even human beings.

According to various estimates, about 2,000 people lost their life in the devastating floods, almost 20 million people (around 10pc of the country’s population) were directly affected, over 1.6 million homes were either washed away or were damaged to the level that they were no more worth living in, about 17,753 villages were partially or fully submerged, while about 165,550sqkm of land area was affected.

The cost of property damage was estimated to be$43 billion. More than two million hectares of land was flooded. The damage to houses, infrastructure and livestock was massive.

The flood caused severe and wide-scale damage to schools and health infrastructure, while roads were also extensively damaged.

Poverty increased overwhelmingly as people lost their sole source of income: their crops.

The destruction in Balochistan was on a great scale, especially in eastern Jaffarabad district where more than 90pc villages were submerged by floodwaters.

The estimated cost of overall destruction in the province was estimated to be a whopping Rs53 billion. Thirteen per cent of the province’s pre-educational facilities were either completely or partially destroyed, making access to education difficult.

Massive and large-scale corruption was witnessed in the distribution of aid and in relief and rehabilitation activities with the result that thousands of people continue to live even now, after the passage of five years, in makeshift tents which are unable to provide adequate shelter from harsh winter or searing heat.

The reasons being the money meant for reconstruction of houses and building of adequate shelters had been misappropriated, enriching various NGOs and district administrators.

Owing to fewer schools, more children remain out of schools, while the extremely poor quality of roads is a nightmare for the people of Jaffarabad.

The irrigation infrastructure is in a very bad shape as broken dykes and embankments have not been repaired as yet.

Corrupt irrigation officials filled their pockets with money allocated for rehabilitation of dykes and watercourses.

The Balochistan chief minister should rebuild the destroyed schools, dykes and embankments and broken roads in Jaffarabad district .

Saad Khosa

Jaffarabad

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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