The railway network collapsed. This important source of communication remained disturbed for more than a month.
The country has witnessed numerous floods, drought, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides with regular intervals but none of the successive governments could ever devise a comprehensive strategy for disaster management.
In India, proper disaster management set-up at district level is firmly established with a greater degree of effectiveness. India was able to tackle its massive earthquake in the province of Gujrat few years back while Pakistan’s affected people are still in the wilderness, after almost one year. The rehabilitation and reconstruction work is slow and agonizing.
The torrential rains in Sindh have again raised serious questions regarding a national disaster management strategy which was promised in the aftermath of the massive earthquake. Nothing has happened.
Disaster mitigation and prevention has never been on the agenda. After each disaster, the federal government incurs considerable expenditure on rescue, relief and rehabilitation through the district administration.
The new district system is less capable of administering disaster management because of lack of proper training. In its four years of history, the new system of local bodies have miserably failed in handling any crisis of any magnitude and nature, anywhere in Pakistan. The bureaucratic system of disaster management, though deteriorating, was far better than the present one. The current system suffers from lack of full sense of responsibility on the part of political leadership.
There are no long-term, inclusive and coherent institutional arrangements to address disaster issues with a long-term vision. For instance, the Emergency Relief Cell is mandated to deal only with post-disaster scenarios. Pakistan’s disaster management revolves around flood disasters with a primary focus on rescue and relief. The focus is on post-disaster scenarios.
The Federal Flood Commission (FFC), the Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) and the Pakistan Meteorological Department are key agencies. The ERC headed by the Cabinet Secretary, is supposed to coordinate the activities of the federal division, provincial governments, and aid-giving agencies for relief operations.
The Ministry of Interior’s National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) has a 24-hour operational control room for collecting information of emergencies from all over the country. It is also responsible for co-ordinating emergency response services. However, the NCMC has failed in responding to any emergency since its establishment.
The district administrations of Hyderabad, Badin, Thatta and Karachi have failed in handling the post-rain situation in Sindh and the provincial government was also not able to extend timely cooperation to the affected areas. The rain water still occupies second largest city of Sindh and has paralyzed the socio-economic life in Hyderabad. This city is a gateway to lower Sindh and an commercial centre for many towns and villages. The rain water would cause numerous problems for citizens including water contamination and water- related diseases like gastroenteritis.
The recent rain spree has many short-term and long-term implications for the economy. The damage done by rains is big enough to affect the economic growth; However, its effect is yet to be assessed. Agriculture is the worst affected sector in the short-run but it would be beneficiary in the long-run. The rains and flood like situation have paralyzed the economic activity and have caused loss of many working hours.
The upcountry transportation of industrial inputs and raw materials is also affected badly by supply disruption due to the unavailability of train transportation.
The road network is fundamental for socio-economic activities and an indispensable infrastructure to transport people and materials for restoration from disaster. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is important not only to minimise damage through rapid restoration but also to prevent damage in advance.
However, rains have always played havoc with our physical infrastructure. Repairing of roads and highways takes a long time. An important economic centre, Hyderabad is at standstill for many days and people are waiting to get rid of rain water to resume economic activity. However, failure of provincial and city administrations to tackle the situation in the aftermath of rains in Karachi and Hyderabad once again necessitated the need to establish proper disaster management unit in every major city of the country.
The GDP growth target of seven per cent for the current year is consistent with a 4.5 per cent of growth in the agriculture sector and 12 per cent in the large-scale manufacturing sector. The agriculture growth may be hurt by the tremendous blow by torrential rains to the health of the standing crops.
The disruption in supply chain of industrial raw material from Karachi port to the industrial units elsewhere in Punjab and the NWFP has badly affect industrial growth during the last two months. The services sector which accounts for more than 50 per cent of the GDP has also suffered a setback.
In this situation, the government has declared some parts of the province of Sindh as calamity hit with revenue exemptions. It means the provincial government will loose its revenue. This situation is detrimental to the cause of fiscal prudence. The provincial government has also allocated some funds for the rain affected areas.
The cotton crop is badly affected by recent rains and it is most unlikely that Sindh would be able to meet the three million bales target. Cotton is an important crop because it provides raw material for textile industry which accounts for two-third of export earnings.
The current phase of rains, however, has many positive implications on long-term prospects of the economy. The long-dry spell in Sindh had impacted the quality of soil adversely. With the availability of enormous water, the quality of soil would improve and hopefully next wheat crop in Sindh would be a record.