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.
@smssr84
“… just once….. only once bow ur head in front of Allah, with a strong belief that Allah listens. JUST ONCE!”
Been there done that for several years after I left Pakistan(during non stop clashes of early 90’s in Karachi)….dua didnt work!
@asim
here is a suggestion……… just once….. only once bow ur head in front of Allah, with a strong belief that Allah listens. JUST ONCE! ….. cry infront of Him, pray for urself, for ur ppl, for ur country. ask for forgivness, ask Him to guide you, help you towards the path of righteousness…. help your countrymen!
Just once pray with all our heart and soul…. and you will see how much Allah will bless!!
Pray with strong belief that He and Only He Listens!
@ Asim
well Allah nafarmanoon peh fazal aur rehmat nahi barsata apni. ….. Pakistanis in general are an nafarmaan qaum. just coz uss main s0-called muslims rehte hain… that does not mean that Allah will bless them whatever they do.
that is why I said keh its time for Pakistanis to do Astakfar and tubha. kya pata Allah yeh azab rukh deh. Allah jahan jaza dehta hai…. wahan saza bhi dehta hai…. ibrat naak saza.
as for prayers….. well to each its own. if I look at myself and my jammat…. Jammat Aahmadiyya.. it has been blessed at every step and we have been working on the power of Dua…. and just dua and Tawakal-Illah. just go and do a search on net and see the blessings of Allah….. and live example of power of dua.
Ever since I stumbled upon Dr. David Petley’s blog on the Hunza dam, I have been a regular visitor to his site. This time around he presents data about the recent flooding in pakistan.
http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/
To this makes a very clear case for large dams to be built on river indus. The measuring stations on Besham and then Tarbela show a very large peak of inflow. However Tarbela being a very large dam was able to absorb much of the peak flow and therefore its effect can be seen at flow rate at Chashma where one cannot see a sharp peak but high flow rate spread over several days.
There has been reports about Nowshera being flooded as well. The inundation or flooding of Nowshera has been one of the main reason of opposing the construction of Kalabagh dam.
Can anyone shed light if flooding situation been better controlled if Kalabagh dam was present? I am not sure of relative locations and geography of flood areas and kalabagh (and other proposed dams).