Flood relief falls short in Sindh
By Simon Roughneen
LARKANA, Sindh province - It is 40 degrees Celsius in the mid-afternoon.
Buffalo submerge themselves in floodwaters covering farmland to cool off. Only
their heads are above water as they snort and shake to dismiss the morass of
flies buzzing around.
For many among the 6 million people made homeless by the floods in Pakistan,
such comfort remains elusive. Many are still without basic shelter and rest
under trees, under their carts, and beneath makeshift canopies fashioned from
beds, blankets and whatever bits of timber or trees they can find.
Teams of foreign and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have attempted
to reduce the vast deficit by supplying 500 families in Larkana with temporary
shelters, along with basic survival kits such as jerrycans and buckets to fetch
and store
water, and kitchen sets to enable families to cook. A drop in the ocean in a
many ways, but something nonetheless.
Larkana's pre-flood population of around 345,000 has been swollen to over half
a million, as the Indus River expanded to 40 times its usual size in places.
The roaring, unstoppable river has spawned a tidal wave of people - on the
roads, into towns and cities, all seeking refuge, shelter, food and dry land. A
vast ebb and flow - of water and people - and of tears, for the vast loss
incurred.
"'My farm is under water, and we will not be able to plant even if the water
goes," said Shabaz, one of the 500 heads-of-households in the line-up to
receive the material.
With so many people needing assistance amid pulverized or deluged
infrastructure, a much-criticized government intervention, and a laggard
response from the international community to a disaster that unfurled slowly
over weeks, tensions are rising.
Material is proving difficult to procure - with a nationwide shortage of wooden
or bamboo poles needed to transform plastic sheeting into viable shelters or
tents. The destruction wrought on roads and infrastructure means that, even if
such material is sourced elsewhere, it is far from easy to get it from A to B.
It required careful planning and management to ensure that people understood
that, for this aid distribution, 500 families would be provided with the
material. A police presence was necessary to pre-empt any surge in numbers from
the many thousands awaiting their turn nearby.
Such concerns all add to the security challenge that must be dealt with, in a
country where threats have been made against foreign aid workers by the
Tehrik-e-Taliban (Pakistan Taliban). A rumor that foreign aid workers had been
killed in Swat in the northwest of the country has not been confirmed,
according to a security source working with NGOs.
In the days since the rumor broke, Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Hussain
Haqqani, said, "The government has, of course, a whole security strategy for
aid workers and no aid worker has been hurt in Pakistan in the last several
years."
Choices, conundrums and conspiracies are everywhere. Floodwaters diverted onto
farmland to save cities become allegations of oligarchs and elites deliberately
saving their farms and mills, while deluging impoverished smallholders.
At Sukkur, the main town in northern Sindh, the rising, roaring river was
diverted to prevent inexorable pressure building up on a massive dam on the
town's outskirts, which if breached might have inundated the city. The choice
faced by the authorities - to save the city or save the land - doesn't wash
with the thousands of farming families who travelled 20, 30 or even 50 miles
(80 kilometers) on foot to Sukkur only to find that shelter and other relief
were in short supply.
Still, respect for the old, feudal order persists. Hundreds of homeless people
are camped at the Bhutto family mausoleum, outside the family's home village at
Garhi Khuda Baksh. The massive structure, with its Taj Mahal-esque domes, can
be seen for miles around - a white opulence in aesthetic contrast with the
green rice paddies all around, and in contrast with the misery and suffering of
the displaced women and children sheltering from the heat inside the relative
cool of the compound, 15 meters from the final resting place of Benazir and
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former president.
The late Mrs Bhutto - who served twice as premier - retains enormous respect in
Sindh, unlike her husband, President Asif Ali Zardari, who was criticized for
visiting Europe as the flood crisis broke several weeks ago.
Prior to the disaster, his popularity rating was a meagre 20%. A perception
that the government is corrupt and feckless, and that the country is beset by
militants has likely hindered the amount of donations by Western countries. For
a natural disaster that has displaced an estimated 20 million people and
submerged one-fifth of the country, financial support has lagged far behind
that offered to victims of the Haiti earthquake and other recent disasters,
including the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.
United States Agency for International Development shelter material -
emblazoned with the motto "From the American people" - dots the outskirts of
towns and cities, even as some foreign NGOs balk at distributing the kit. The
ordinary Pakistanis awaiting aid are far less picky, despite findings from a
recent Pew survey that shows six out 10 Pakistanis regard the US as an enemy.
Nonetheless, US drone strikes in Taliban strongholds in Pakistan's north have
continued as flood relief is disbursed.
Washington has committed US$200 million for flood assistance, more than any
international donor so far. American charity, however, is better-described as a
private matter and historically these donations and philanthropy have
far-outstripped official aid - undercutting the sneering from Europe about
America's alleged indifference to humanitarian issues. However, for this flood,
American private contributions estimated at $11 million have lagged behind
those for other disasters. The Haiti earthquake prompted $560 million in
American donations.
The relatively low death toll in comparison with other recent disasters - fewer
than 2,000 people so far - and the slow unfurling of the disaster as the floods
spread over weeks, are likely to have contributed to the relatively slow
response.
The Pakistani Taliban have offered 2 million rupees (US$23,360) in aid for
victims of the devastating floods, saying that donor governments were slow to
cough up, as they did not trust the Pakistani government. The Taliban had
earlier offered to provide aid for the flood victims and urged the government
to reject aid from Western countries.
China is making its presence felt, already rebuilding roads in northern
Pakistan that lead into western China's Xinjiang province. A commentary on
state-run Xinhua's website waxed lyrical, even as Beijing's contribution was a
fraction of Washington's.
"At a time when flood-hit Pakistanis desperately need a helping hand, China
spares no efforts in providing them with timely assistance, sending rescue
teams to the country's worst-hit regions, not to mention the at least 120
million yuan [US$17.7 million] worth of humanitarian supplies it has already
offered."
However, oil-rich Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia have been criticized
for tight-fistedness, with Riyadh upping its initial $20 million pledge to $80
million, while official pledges and donations from other Gulf states have been
paltry. Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani accompanied Saudi Prince
al-Waleed bin Talal to a relief camp at Muzaffargarh, and took an aerial view
of the flood-hit areas on Sunday.
Half-hearted competition for hearts and minds is ongoing, with the government
and militant-linked charities trying to outdo one another in providing aid to
the stricken millions. Meanwhile, Christians and other religious minorities
affected by the disaster complain they are being discriminated against in the
relief effort.
One Sindhi aid worker, who asked not to be identified, said, "What is happening
will add to Pakistan's problem of governance. We have no leadership, and the
ordinary people - they do not know or care about whether it is democracy or a
military government. But they will see that vast numbers of their kind were
neglected."
Simon Roughneen is a freelance journalist, His website is
www.simonroughneen.com.
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