When the floods hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of Pakistan in 2010, there were a number of local and foreign NGOs carrying out operations in the affected areas to rescue and rehabilitate the population. The same activity was seen in the disastrous earthquake that hit Hazara division and Azad Kashmir in 2005.

Though some NGOs are engaged in rescue and rehabilitation currently in Chitral and other flood hit areas this year, the scale of the activities of the private sector is not that large. Most of the rescue and rehabilitation work is either being carried out by the government departments and army. The reason is that most of the international NGOs working in the province have been banned or not issued the required No Objection Certificates to carry out operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The flood was expected but the authorities were not ready, as usual. They are yet to realise that floods destroy many parts of the country in mid July every year. The same happened this year. A number of houses, markets and other buildings were damaged and people were forced to leave homes when the flood hit the northern part of Peshawar and adjoining districts. People were rescued by Rescue 1122 and police officials who were shifting people to school and other safe buildings in the city. At least two people died in the flood and rain related incidents in Peshawar.

However, the damage was already done in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before the government machinery could move. The most affected district of the province remained Chitral where roads, houses, water pipes, electricity generating small units and the entire infrastructure have been destroyed. As many as 34 people have lost their lives in the rain and flood related incidents.

"The overall casualties in Malakand division remained 48. A total of 348 houses were damaged by the floods," said commissioner Malakand Mehmood Aslam.

There were a number of NGOs previously working in Chitral. However, most of the civil society organisations were not seen there this year. Some of the local NGOs, including the Alkhidmat Foundation of Jamaat-e-Islami and the Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP), were among the few NGOs that helped the affected population in Chitral, providing them food and ration.

The SRSP has dug 54 wells in the affected areas to provide clean drinking water to the people. "As the floods have washed away all the sources of drinking water, the dwellers have only these wells to get drinking water from," informs Tariq Ahmad, the district programme manager of the SRSP. The organisation is also helping the affected populace in many other ways.

"It was the right time for the local and international NGOs to help the flood victims," said a lawyer, Khurram Zeeshan Advocate. He added that the government should keep a check on the NGOs involved in suspicious activities but allow those which are really contributing to relief work.

Due to absence of NGOs, police and the local government officials had to rush to help the affected people. "Our policemen are providing water to the people of areas where water supply infrastructure has been washed away. We have set up a control room for the flood related operations that is being headed by a deputy superintendent of police," said the district police officer Chitral, Abbas Majeed Marwat.