The devastating floods, worst-ever in Pakistan’s history have shattered lives in the country at an unimaginable scale. Millions of families have lost just everything—homes, livestock, crops, and, in some cases, their loved ones too. According to the National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities of the Pakistani government, the number of people directly affected by the floods is 15.4 million. Heavy rains and flood waters from the mighty Indus River have swept away homes, bridges, schools, roads and other social infrastructure like health centres, leaving millions displaced and in need of immediate assistance.  The official death toll has risen to 1,475, with 2,052 people reported as injured. According to the United Nations, almost 1 million houses are now reported as having been either damaged or destroyed, which is a colossal loss, and will take years to rebuild. With water and sanitation sources completely destroyed in many areas, people have been forced to drink contaminated floodwater, enhancing the risk of disease. The country is currently going through the impact of the second wave of floods, with a spur of the Indus River now stretching through Jacabobad district in Sindh into Jaffarabad in Balochistan. UN agencies have warned of a continuing risk of inundation of low-lying areas in the coming days. Situation reports by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) say that despite the continuing efforts of the Government and humanitarian agencies to assist affected populations across the country, large numbers of people are yet to be reached with the assistance they need, particularly in Sindh and Punjab. The Karakoram highway continues to be blocked, cutting off road access to Gilgit-Baltistan area of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. The country’s Frontier Works Organization (FWO) has indicated that at least three weeks will be required before the road can reopen. Some assessment reports say that at least 3.2 million hectares of standing crops have so far been damaged or lost across the country. There is massive damage to irrigation canals as well. The level of funding that is pouring is clearly not enough to meet the immediate relief requirements – not to speak of the longer term needs of rebuilding houses and restoring social infrastructure. According to figures reported to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), as of 18 August, 47%of funding requirements set out in the Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan (PIFERP) have been covered (US$ 215 million out of total requirements of US$ 459.7 million). The country’s current situation offers both challenges and opportunities in improving the lives of the people. The international community must – considering the challenges that Pakistan is faced at this point of history – extend generous financial support to Pakistan in rebuilding the lives and social infrastructure in the country. That support must go beyond providing the initial relief aid. On another level, this situation also offers an opportunity for renewed engagement between India and Pakistan to sort out their differences, and address their principal issue of contention – Kashmir – with foresight. In such a background, Pakistan’s acceptance of India’s offer of emergency aid marks a new level of positive engagement between the two countries – which gives hope of extension of goodwill while they engage to deal with their political and diplomatic challenges in future. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s assertion while speaking on the sidelines of the special session of the General Assembly on Pakistan at the United Nations headquarters on Thursday that Pakistan had no intention to play politics with disaster aid offered by India symbolizes that sense of positive engagement. In such a backdrop, even as Kashmir is going through an agony of its own for many weeks now, the absence of expression of solidarity and grief by its political leadership towards the people of Pakistan smacks of insensitivity and ill-judgment which needs to be corrected. Some words of grief – like those that emanated from New Delhi – for the Pakistani people in their hour of deep crisis are needed.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST