Hazards convert into disasters ‘due to poor governance’

Islamabad
Participants of a focus group discussion on ‘Governance and Disasters’ were almost unanimous that all disasters are man-made as bad-governance, ill-planning, corruption and incompetence turn hazards into disasters.
The discussion was organised by the Pattan Development Organisation at the office of Free and Fair Election Network here on the 5th and 10th anniversaries of massive flood and earthquake respectively.
Speaking on the occasion, Sarwar Bari, national coordinator of Pattan, said that hazards convert into disasters due to poor governance. He opined that the 2010 floods were man-made as 600,000 cusecs of water was released into Indus River from Tarbela when Kabul River already had 400,000 cusecs flowing into it, making the total formidable 10,000 cusecs. He said that according to a Pattan’s study, there were 6 floods instead of one. He said that similarly, in 2014, water was released from Mangla Dam in River Jhelum when Chenab was already in high flood.
He said that his organisation is working on earthquake also but in three affected provinces only. He said that his analysis, expected to be released on October 5, the anniversary of the tremor, is qualitative as well as quantitative.
He regretted that the district disaster management authority does not exist anywhere in Pakistan. He said that the percentage of vulnerable houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 80, in Punjab 31, Sindh 50 and at national level it is 40%. He lamented that the amount of losses was staggering Rs70 billion. He said that in 1950s, there were 5 major floods, but strangely, no flood was reported in 1960s. He said that the number of floods doubled in the eighties, whereas some decline was witnessed in 1990s and the following decade.
Bari said that 19,000 villages were affected in 2010 by floods. In 2011, the number of villages doubled. He said that according to a study, 60% collapsed houses were private losses whereas government losses were around 43%. He said that ‘katcha’ areas became ‘pucca’ and population increased, hence the losses also increased.
In the discussion, the majority of participants observed that more destruction of government buildings in the earthquake-affected cities like Muzaffarabad evinced that the construction was substandard. It was also observed that due to increase in population and settlements after 1950s, the losses multiplied. Reference was also made to a one-kilometre bridge on an 11-kilometre river in Muzaffargarh. Crisis and panic will be an obvious result and the risky bridge remains under constant threat.
Many participants observed that vulnerability is so less in the US, Japan and Europe as major hazards are tackled and there are no disasters. One participant said that despite unprecedented earthquake and foreign expert advices, there is no improvement in construction. He said that if there is a tremor of higher magnitude, there will be even more damage. Nobody disagreed that there had been so much aid but it went down the drain. The existence of parallel laws and bodies also create question of jurisdiction.