Adil Najam
The death toll continues to mount. From 228 it leapt up to 417, and now the authorities in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province say that it is more than 800. Casualties are also mounting in Sindh Punjab and Baluchistan.
If the 800 number is correct then the national toll must be well above 1000. And all of this as the ‘super flood’ that is expected in Sindh and Punjab because of these rains has not even hit as yet!
But the number of the day today is neither 800 or 1000, it is 1,000,000: Over one million people, according to the United Nations, have now been affected by these rains in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa alone. That number is bound to be much larger if you count the entire country, and is bound to grow even larger.
Hopefully these will be short-term displacements, but they are tragic – and unnecessary – displacements nonetheless. As commenters have already pointed out, there is nothing ‘natural’ about this disaster. It is entirely human made. People die not because it rains, they die because they do not have the means to cope with the rains. They do not have the means because of poverty and maldevelopment. These are preventable deaths and preventable displacement. The question is only whether we have the will to prevent.
The dead have unfortunately gone already. It is too late for us to act to help them. But let us do whatever we can to help those whose lives have been shattered by these floods. They have little recourse to a national social security net. And we have no excuse not to act.
As we announced yesterday, ATP will be sending all of its revenue to relief agencies working with the poor hit by these flood. We urge our readers to do the same. We are sending our contributions to the Edhi Foundation, but please send yours wherever you feel best, and please also share with us and our readers ideas about what you think are the best ways to help those displaced by these rains.
More details on this calamity here; and a pictorial post of the misery it has brought, here.
I had not realized the scale of this. This is a huge calamity and as you say the troubles will increase as the water travels down south and the rivers rise further.
@Kaffir per Pakistani Law ,
So Allah is killing kids younger than 5 years old because they have committed some sins?
@Amarnath. I am going to ignore your nastiness because it does not deserve a response, and that is all your are seeking.
Prof. Najam, you are right in highlighting this again and again. The scale of this calamity is huge but also this is something that we go do something about. I appreciate your own efforts as well as the awareness and inspiration you are providing to others.
AZAB-I-ILAHI
(Wrath of Allah SWT)
From where this water came in Pakistan?…..Just the way Azab of Allah SWT comes out of blue sky.
Prof. Najam, I admire your perseverence on this and making sure that we do not ignore this calamity. But you do realize that all your fellow bloggers as well as all your fellow Pakistanis seem like they could not care less about what happens to these one million or more!