It has been over four months now that the super floods hit the country, but so far rehabilitation efforts have left much to desire. Overall, both the federal and provincial governments have failed to handle the 2022 flood disaster in an adequate manner. Though the government says it has disbursed cash aid to millions of people affected by the floods, in the absence of a disbursement-monitoring system questions are bound to arise. Complete dewatering has still not happened in the many districts that came under flood waters, and there is still standing water across hundreds of square kilometres. In the immediate aftermath of the floods, relief work took some momentum but after the provision of emergency aid the government should have moved on from temporary measures to long-term provision of a rehabilitation framework. The affected people are still suffering and no major efforts appear to be underway to reduce the crisis.
From a natural calamity, this has now turned into a crisis that has been propelled by humans, a disaster that needs immediate attention. Once the relief phase of immediate needs was over, rehabilitation efforts should have started apace. Especially in Sindh, the situation is still bad with people still languishing in the floodwaters. First the authorities made breaches in the Indus that were not entirely in line with the interests of common people. There have been allegations that many breaches were made to save the lands of the influential landlords and water diverted to other localities of ordinary mortals. Over the past decades there have been obstructions in the natural flow of water and the government has been paying little or no attention to the maintenance of drains. Though in the past four months the UN and other agencies have conducted studies to assess the magnitude of the devastation and identify priority areas for rehabilitation, there has been sluggish progress for various reasons.
The people affected by the floods were already poor when the disaster struck, but now they are living in abject poverty and moving to urban centres seeking some respectable work, but there are many on the streets too, reduced to begging just to survive. The cash the government pays evaporates almost immediately and people are left to their own devices again. Flooded land does not become cultivable immediately; it requires some land development before the next cultivation but no such development is in sight. Farmers can sow only when the soil is ready and for that they need expenses. Someone needs to verify how much aid is actually reaching the farmers and how much is appropriated by the landlords. The government must ensure that the livelihood of the landless peasants is rehabilitated at least to the previous level. Without immediate action by the government, millions of people will not be able to break the chain of dependency they find themselves in.