Monsoon mayhem

At least 74 people have died across the country in the spate of rains and flash floods that have occurred in the last three weeks.    Four of those deaths occurred in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday, while the city of Peshawar was submerged in rainwater. Although national headlines have focused elsewhere, it is important to raise the problem of how unprepared Pakistan is for the monsoon season. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has seen it fit to simply issue a warning to people to remain wary in upper Punjab and Azad Jammu Kashmir. Local departments are apparently instructed to clean up drainage systems but the reality is that none of the work appears to have been done. Karachi remained flooded for days the last time it rained while smaller cities like Gujranwala have also been inundated; and in Gujranwala rain-related incidents took the lives of six people. The situation in the federal capital has been no better – with flooded streets and the death of four people showing us even the capital is not immune to the horrors of the monsoons. The sheer level of incompetence at the governance level can be seen in the simple fact that new infrastructure in the city became the site of major flooding.

The good thing is that major rivers are still flowing at normal levels. This means that a bigger flooding crisis has not occurred, but this is due to luck rather than preparation. If the rain cycle gets more severe, there could still be major floods. There is also something to be said about the nature of the deaths. Many of them are a result of electrocution, roof collapses and drowning in sewers. These are the responsibilities of local administrations that are required to ensure basic building standards are met. This is work that needs to happen over years, not in a rush just a few days before rainy season starts. Roads and underpasses built only a year ago have flooded, again pointing to the poor quality of new infrastructure. The lives that are lost, time wasted and financial losses suffered could easily have been avoided if the state were fulfilling its responsibilities. Fighting floods cannot be an afterthought. It needs careful preparation. But that would require government authorities looking at the issue as a serious priority. We seem to be reliving negligence year after year.