By: Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti
As per news reports hundreds of thousands of people have been directly affected by raging flooding caused by relentless downpours across Pakistan that killed hundreds of people in the past some days .In the entire country, especially in Balochistan and Sindh, four hundred percent more than usual stormy rains and sudden flood have caused destruction. There have been more disasters than that. The Prime Minister has particularly pointed out that most of the land connections have been cut off due to the inundation and collapse of connecting roads, railway lines and bridges in the two provinces and difficulties have arisen in providing relief, so it has become necessary that Helicopters should be used for rescuing victims, delivering food and other relief activities. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah is visiting the flood affected areas. He has declared 23 districts of the province as disaster prone. Currently, tens of thousands of people are at the mercy of an exceptional monsoon season, which has wreaked havoc across Pakistan aside from inundating large swaths, washing away infrastructures, and triggering landslides. Hundreds of people have so far lost their lives in the ongoing floods across the country. Due to the catastrophic impact of rainfall in Balochistan, the death toll in the province has reached 225, with at least nine lives lost on Monday. In Sindh’s Larkana district, more than 200 houses have been ravaged and flooding has claimed the lives of 22 people in the span of three days.
Almost all the ministers and people connected to the government are terming it a natural disaster but it is not so. The rain, uninterrupted rain without any pause may be a natural calamity but sufferings and disasters caused by it are simply due to our incompetency. If we have a look over the facts and figures of raining across the globe in different countries we fine that there are several countries which receive more than we have recently received but there are not such type of disasters which we come across here in our country. Our almost all rain connected problems are due to complete absence of infrastructure required to face such situations.
If we just look at our yearly budget we will find that there are not only thousands of projects necessary for drainage and sewerage issues but also a huge amount being spent on disaster management related issues but all some such budget become the prey of corruption.