What have the floods taught us?

“Allah was angry with us when the rain came” – this was the response by most people under the wrath of the catastrophic floods this monsoon season.

The extent of the disastrous floods might have reduced by now but what it has taught should stay with us forever. The cities of Nowshera and neighbouring Charsadda, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and their suburbs were the first major communities to be hit by the unprecedented flooding that swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left about seven million homeless this summer.

The actual numbers are definitely much higher than what was put across by the government. Not just infrastructure but entire families including pregnant women and infants were swept across the water, making it the worst ever natural disaster of the nation to date.

The locals attributed the disaster to nature’s wrath; the government gave due credit to global warming and climate change – but there was more to it than what met the eyes. Pakistan’s share of annual global greenhouse-gas emissions is not even one per cent though it accounts for almost three per cent of the world population.

A ClimateWire investigation into the origins of the flood disaster uncovered evidence that points to human-made calamity, the cumulative effect of erratic weather forecast by climate change models, excessive deforestation, massive soil erosion and lax attention to infrastructure maintenance, engineering standards used by multinational companies and the ignorance of humans.

Sindh and Balochistan were the worst-sufferers, seeing hundreds of people killed and millions displaced. The flooding has crippled a country that was already reeling from a towering economic crisis and double digit-inflation that has sent the price of basic amenities soaring. Now when the worst has passed, the aftereffects threaten to set Pakistan back years or even decades. In no way do I conclude that the disaster could have been completely avoided but what I’m sure of is the fact that it could have been mitigated enormously.

A quick response on the part of the government could have saved what turned out to be the worst exigency of the decade. They say ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ but the already cash-strapped economy was deeply immersed in political cacophony when the alarming bells were first rung. The unexpected torrential rains began in the middle of June and on August 25, a state of emergency was declared by the government.

Our power-hungry former prime minister Imran Khan turned the plight into a PR stunt by his regular telethons with the hollow claim of raising millions – no information of which was available in the public domain on the spending of the amounts collected. Each political party urged donations to their own charity and various NGOs, both registered and others which thought of the tragedy as an easy source to make money, participated actively to ‘assist the downtrodden’. Other countries too jumped on the bandwagon, some to point fingers and others to come clean.

The government estimates the cost of flood damages at $30 billion. In September 2022, government officials estimated at least $30 billion of reconstruction costs and economic damage, equivalent to about 10 per cent of GDP. What lies ahead of us is a serious issue. But what is worrisome is the action-plan of the government to help those who have lost their families, their land, their sole source of livelihood and most importantly, the will to start afresh.

In political and economic terms, Pakistan was ill prepared for a disaster of this intensity. Its responsibility in terms of mitigating climate change is indeed miniscule but our authorities have paid far too little attention towards adaptation. Poor governance, lack of planning and ignorance towards adaptation strategies have compounded this year’s disaster which is going to haunt us for years to come. Thousands of hectares of farm lands have been destroyed, basic amenities including paramedical facilities have attained sky-rocketing prices and people have no option left than to drink contaminated water.

Incessant floods may be attributed to climate change but the suffering of the people is undoubtedly a manifestation of poor governance structures that foster inequities and reward shortsightedness. We had 12 years since the 2010 floods to correct course. But even after 12 years our people sail in the same boat of drudgery and disappointment. It is a pity that provincial governments and local authorities did not ensure implementation of relevant laws to stop illegal construction activities during all these years. If mindful steps are still not taken then the consequences in the coming years could prove more lethal than this year’s devastating floods.

The writer is a journalist.