Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Senator Sanaullah Baloch
In July, disastrous bloods in Balochistan swept away tens of thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people. Balochistan had not yet recovered from the Ethiopia-like drought which ravaged the province from 1999 to 2003. So the flood severely affected the socio-economic conditions of the poverty stricken and deprived Baloch people.
In the early phase of the cyclone the government felt compelled to drop packages and rescues some affected people. Meanwhile, the international community intervened to assist the distressed population of the flood-affected areas. Afterwards, however, the central government purposely refused all international aid and assistance without giving any reason or justification.
On July 4, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz declared in Peshawar that "Pakistan will not take foreign aid from any country to overcome the loss and devastation caused by the recent rains and floods, and will itself rehabilitate and help flood affected people in Balochistan.
The government deliberately ignored the situation, hampered access to national and foreign donors and started a full-fledged operation at the Lal Masjid. This planned move was aimed to redirect the local and foreign media from the appalling humanitarian crisis.
The victims of cyclone and floods in Sindh and Balochistan did not receive full attention of thecivil society largely because of the near-absence of reporting on the disaster by the mainstream national media. "The de-prioritization of media had negative effects on the corresponding rescue and relief activities of both state and non-state actors," said a panellist in an interactive discussion hosted by the Rural Development Policy Institute and Practical Action South Asia.
The central government also ignored the repeated requests of the provincial government, as well as a demand by a resolution of the Balochistan Assembly, for a large-scale donor conference on the pattern of the Earthquake Relief Donors Conference held in Islamabad following the earthquake.
According to the chief minister of Balochistan and the inspector general of the Frontier Corps, the flood damages were not less than the devastation caused by the October 2005 earthquake. Top officials of province maintained that the damage caused by the flash floods to the infrastructure alone is over Rs1 trillion.
The government also came under fire in the National Assembly on August 15 for its "indifference towards flood victims."
According to a senior UN official, the disaster marooned 2.5 million people, affected more than 6,500 villages and destroying 80,000 houses. Lack of information from the worst-hit areas and problems of access for international staff may have contributed to donors' reluctance to fund the flash appeal. According to the UN, the situation in certain areas, where the affected communities are vulnerable to malaria and dengue fever epidemics, is critical.
Usman Qazi of the United Nations Development Programme says that around two million people from 22 of the 29 districts of Balochistan and six of the 25 districts of Sindh were badly affected. The number of internally displaced and homeless people is nearly 200,000.
The catastrophic situation in Balochistan was partly the outcome of one of the junta's mega-development projects, in this case "Mirani dam". The ill-planned and poorly constructed small dams in Balochistan caused manifold increase in the number of people made homeless. The worst-affected area is Turbat and areas Mirani Dam, where townships have been inundated or washed away by flash floods and breaches in river embankments. Ministers and other top officials have always aggressively pushed mega-projects such as dams, without considering the aspects of planning, feasibility, and short- and long-term effects on people and on the region.
NESPAK, a Lahore-based consultancy group, prepared a controversial plan to build the Rs6 billion Mirani Dam in Kech district to meet the future water needs of Gwadar. The upshot of Mirani Dam, completed by Descon Engineering Limited, a construction firm owned by a former federal minister of the Musharraf regime and inaugurated on Nov 16, 2006, by Musharraf himself, resulted in massive losses to the inhabitants of the region.
The building of the Mirani dam has left a large number of people displaced during its construction, Rs1.5 billion compensation for displaced people has not reached the deserving people. On June 1, hundreds of people affected by the Mirani dam project staged a demonstration in Turbat town against delay in payment of compensation. Police intervened and used tear gas to disperse the protesters and arrested 28 people. Since the start of the project heavily-guarded NESPAK and construction team was reluctant to share the outlines of social and economic impact and Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) of the dam with local people.
The government was in a state of denial of this human catastrophe. The state has always used Balochistan for rallies and by giving artificial representation, to give psychological boost to the government's unproductive and unpopular development agenda. Development in Balochistan has always been imposed by centre and implemented by aliens. Top officials in province are posted on the will and wish of Islamabad to accomplish their own version of development-exploitation. They lack basic knowledge, understanding and skills to deal efficiently and act humanly when it comes to the issues of socio-economic development of region.
Vulnerability analysis, like identification of the population at risk in and around Mirani Dam and settlements in floodway and flood plain were completely ignored during the construction process. No useful information, flood risk mapping and communication tools were disseminated by any government agency to create awareness among the inhabitants about probable maximum floods and rescue strategies.
Flood risk mapping is one of the key factors to flood risk management and should be readily available to the public as well as to emergency response agencies. Mapping defines the areas at risk. Maps become the common element in terms of identification of flood-prone areas, identifying the risk to individuals and lending institutions, preparation of emergency response plans, and designs of flood protections and flood proofing measures.
The central government never bothered to use supportive technologies to reduce and minimise human risk through forecasting droughts and floods. However, when it comes to the killing and proscription of political dissidents in Balochistan, the military regime is using the best available technological resources.
The disaster was a good time for the initiation of reconciliation with the unhappy people of Balochistan, but the government squandered the opportunity. The situation is still unspeakably bad, with hundreds of thousands of people unable to reconstruct their mud houses. They need urgent and permanent attention until the revival of normal economic activities in the region. They must have access to long-term interest-free agriculture and commercial loans. Schools and healthcare centres must be rebuilt on top-priority basis.
The central government has always helped corrupt politicians to govern the province. The systematic exclusion and colonial policies of Islamabad have created a terrible situation in the province. Lack of practical education and human resource centres are resulting in a high level of unemployment.
The central government must take immediate steps to open branches of the House Building Finance Corporation in all the devastated localities, provide interest-free loans for the rebuilding of houses and-small scale businesses, and seek UN assistance to plan new modern housing and social infrastructure in the region.
The writer is a member of the Senate: Email: balochbnp @gmail.com
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