Flawed disaster management

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Lazy king style

As the floods play havoc in AJK, KP and Punjab, the federal agencies supposed to jointly manage the disaster are blaming each other for whatever goes wrong. The rapid filling of Mangla Dam has been questioned, so is the poor coordination among the flood protection agencies as well as acting on ‘unreliable’ information about flood data supposedly provided by India. The exercise is bound to create the perception that there is something wrong with the working of the agencies tasked to mitigate the impact of the ravages of nature.

River overflows are not new to Pakistan. The country has faced a succession of major floods during the years 1955, 1973, 1976, 1988, 1992, 2010 and 2011. These have invariably led to losses of life and property, damage to crops, destruction of infrastructure and displacement of thousands of people. One had expected that the government would have developed a fairly efficient system of flood warning and providing relief to the affected population by this time. Meanwhile canals would be desilted and the banks of waterways strengthened; there should have been plans in place to deal with the worst scenario.

What one sees is a repetition of the past mistakes. As usual the PML-N government has remained focused on mega projects costing billions of rupees. It had no time for the improvement of the system. Even in places where the population was warned in time, it was told to immediately leave without being guided to specified areas where food and shelter for the flood victims and fodder for their cattle could be provided. Many still remain marooned. The CM who is supposed to organise things from his office is running from one flood affected town to another, followed by crews of the TV channels, telecasting his activities live. This is bad administration as it takes the provincial chief executive’s attention away from the overall situation and hinders him from issuing timely directions to field officers. Instead of providing relief to the people, local administration is required to attend on the CM.

1 COMMENT

  1. None Muslim NGOs must not be Authorised until New Revolutionary Govt Take Commands in Islamabad Capital Of Islamic Republic Of Pakistan

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