Apathy of a System

Rawalpindi...present day

Wet and shivering, Solat Bibi sits on a soaked charpai (local bed) with two kids sleeping by her side. A few belongings the family has managed to save are lying around them. They are just one of the many families in similar conditions lying through out the neighbouhood. Solat Bibi lost one of her sons to the water and everything else they had is now soaked in mud. Their house collapsed during the floods, their cows, the only source of income for the family, are no more alive.
A few yards away from her lies a more shattered Naseema Bibi, who has lost everything she ever had in life, including her husband and two daughters. The husband had tried to save the girls when the tide took them all away, far from Naseema. She mourns aloud and then curses herself, now all she wonders is why God left her alive...!

Around 200 people died and thousands others suffered billions of Rupees of damages when Torrential rains played havoc in the northern Pakistan including the twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad last week. Even today the rehabilitation work continues and so does the sufferings of people as Rains are anything but over. Hundreds lie on the streets every night without the surety that they would live to see the next dawn or not. Most badly hit areas were the neighbourhoods along the Leh Nala in Downtown Rawalpindi. As flood waters passed by, earth gave way and hundreds of houses collapsed, dozens died and many others injured.

Army soldiers took over most of the rehab work but the civil authorities, who are actually responsible for this work in the first place are reluctant to even lift a finger. They think that with the army in power, its their duty to look after the people. 12,000 soldiers are now involved in the flood relief operation which is proving difficult in face of more rains every day. According to some newspapers, only ONE Muncipal lifeboat came to rescue the stranded people whereas army rescued children using helicopters!

The Rawalpindi Muncipal Corporation RMC is originally responsible for flood relief operations and for that purpose it has been provided with a fleet of lifeboats and alamring systems. In some areas the flood warning alarms went off too late when the waters had already entered houses. Sheer negligence on part of RMC has contributed to the death toll and economic loss.

As if that was not enough, the RMC is still reluctant to take part in the cleaning operation leaving the army and NGOs to work. Some local self-help groups have sprouted in downtown areas where no or rare help arrives daily.

In total absence of an independent flood control and relief authority, floods rage each year and cause damage worth millions plus the agony of losing lives leaving many families without hope of survival!

Filed on July 29 2001.