Over 1,500 people have died and a further 14 million people affected by the worst flooding Pakistan has seen in 80 years. Entire villages have been swept away in the Swat valley, particularly badly hit, which has also seen two years of intense military fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani army.
One Swat valley resident, Maula said “We saw destruction during the three years of the Taliban and then during their fight with the army. But the destruction we have seen in the last three days is much more”.
The recent flooding is another example of a natural event that has become a man-made disaster – similar to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans in 2005. In a country systematically lagging behind in its development like Pakistan serious flooding kills many more people than it should.
The government has failed to reactive swiftly – President Zardari received serious criticism from the Pakistani media for flying to London to patch up his relations with the British Prime Minister David Cameron over Cameron’s politically motivated comments criticizing Pakistan for being soft on terrorism. Zardari flew back to Pakistan to get his face shown in Karachi after the ethnic violence there and then promised to turn his attention to the flood victims.
Rashid Fazal told our reporter “The situation is very devastating, people have lost everything. The floods have affected the poor worse, they have nowhere else to go, and no money to buy essential supplies. They are living without food, water and medicine. Children are specially in bad condition. We looking for the help, but govt so far is doing nothing, even after so many days”
Much of the aid has been left to the charities such as Oxfam, who switched their attentions from dealing with the humanitarian disaster caused by the fighting to the food refugees. The Canadian and US governments have offered close to $10.3 million in aid. But the highly militarized state of Pakistan can only send in soldiers to carry out flood relief, and has very little social security safety nets for people who will now be forced to rebuild their villages from scratch.
The Pakistani government took over a week to respond to the flooding, only dispatching soldiers and civilian aid workers in early August. Many of the flood refugees still have not been provided with tents or clothing. “We are in very bad situation hundreds people from my area were killed because of the flood”, said Sajjad. “Until no we have seen very little from the government to help us. It is terrible how badly women and children are suffering…”
Another resident of the flooded area, Habib spoke to us, saying “many people lost their lives in the flood. Many ordinary people are coming from other villages and towns to give us food, water and tents. But people are starting to get sick with different diseases.”
A political campaign is needed to force the Pakistani state to cut its spending on the military and reallocate the funds to help rebuild the destroyed villages. The loans from the IMF and World Bank that have recently been given to Pakistan should be cancelled and turned into grants instead. Ultimately as long as Pakistan exists as a capitalist country exploited by an imperialist world order these kinds man-made disasters will carry on. The humanitarian disaster is in fact a political problem that comes from capitalism itself.
For a report of the work of the League in assisting the victims of the flooding please go here