Nature strikes
After heavy rains in lower Sindh and flood waters from Sutlej inundating standing crops in parts of Punjab’s Kasur district, a disaster has struck Kohistan District in KP. In all these cases, the victims found themselves to be utterly at the mercy of the cruel nature. With the expansion of the scientific knowledge, man has learnt to harness nature to ensure the safety of his communities and to fulfil his multifarious needs. While he is still not able to stop volcanic eruptions, impede the formation of twisters, call a halt to earthquakes or stop the formation of hurricanes, scientific knowledge and related technology have helped reduce the human suffering caused by violent natural phenomena through timely prediction and the consequent removal of communities from areas likely to be affected. Even when all this fails, man has learnt to reduce the human and material losses to the minimum through modern rescue apparatus unknown a century back. To be able to benefit from the valuable aids provided by modern science and technology, a country needs rule of law and good governance. It is here that the rub comes in countries like Pakistan.
The monsoon descended on Sindh exactly on time, neither early nor late. There were already predictions of the rainfall being heavy this time. Despite the foreknowledge the administration failed to repair the drains and the irrigation canals, causing widespread floods that displaced thousands of people and destroyed the crops. Twenty villages of Kasur suffered from the ravages of the Sutlej flood despite an early warning. In the case of Kohistan, flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains swept through an entire village taking along with them to least 63 victims that included a large number of women and children. In February 2010, an avalanche had killed nearly a hundred residents of a hamlet in the district. Many entangled in the debris died days later because modern equipment to bring them out was not available.
Kohistan is the most under-developed district of KP. Scarcity of all weather motorable roads is a constant source of discontentment in the area. Unless more roads are constructed, rescue activity would be delayed while relief provided through helicopters would remain insufficient.