Disaster Management

Everybody knows that no
country, however powerful
or developed, has been able
to develop total protection
against natural calamities.
Earthquakes, hurricanes,
volcanic eruptions, flooding
by rivers and excessive rains
or snowfall have been taking
their toll throughout the
world. The only relevant
question in such situations is
whether a state can keep the
losses to the minimum
possible through a mix of
measures adopted before
and after a natural disaster.
It is doubtful if the people
have become aware of the
exact magnitude of the
disaster that has struck
Pakistan over the past couple
of weeks. In fact, what the
people in the rural areas,
especially in the relatively
inaccessible parts of the
country, suffer as a result of a
natural calamity is never
fully documented or
reported even.
However, it is quite clear that
the situation is pretty grim.
Over 1,000 people are
reported to have perished in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.
Thousands of people were
reported marooned in the
mountainous regions of the
province on Sunday. The
infrastructure, particularly
roads and bridges, has been
ruined, thousands of houses
have been washed away and
crops on thousands of acres
have been destroyed. The
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief
minister may well be right in
saying that his province has
been pushed back by almost
50 years.
The loss of life in Punjab and
Sindh has not been as high as
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but
the economic losses, in terms
of destruction of dwellings
and standing crops, has been
far heavier. Balochistan too
has suffered heavy losses but
as in the past the travails of
that province have not been
adequately reported. Were
all these losses wholly
unavoidable?
Pakistan is not unfamiliar
with heavy rainfall and
flooding by rivers after every
few years. Did the authorities
responsible for taking
precautionary measures
attend to their task? Was
anybody looking after the
maintenance of river beds
and...