Pakistan landlords ‘diverted flood water’
A senior Pakistani diplomat has called for an inquiry into allegations that rich landowners diverted water into unprotected villages during the floods to save their own crops.
UN ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said there was evidence that landowners had allowed embankments to burst.
This led to waters flowing away from their land, he said.
More than 1,600 people have died in the floods, which have affected about 17 million people.
Read more >> BBC
by Majid Maqsood, Karachi, Sindh
It’s not difficult to understand the remarks of MQM Chief Altaf Huusain, seeking military intervention in democratic Govt, because MQM has been the baby of Establishment and it has to be loyal with it, Pakistan getting aid from the World and pledges have been made for flood victims. Therefore, MQM cannot see democratic government to give relief to the flood victims of the country. Media has always been partial about MQM and they always project one side of party and always kept things under carpet.
A New Deal in Pakistan – By William Dalrymple
The province of Sindh in southern Pakistan is a rural region of dusty mudbrick villages, of white-domed blue-tiled Sufi shrines, and of salty desert scrublands broken, quite suddenly, by flood plains of wonderful fecundity. These thin, fertile belts of green—cotton fields, rice paddies, cane breaks, and miles of checkerboard mango orchards—snake along the banks of the Indus River as it meanders its sluggish, silted, café-au-lait way through the plains of Pakistan down to the shores of the Arabian Sea.
Read more >> The New York Review of Books
By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KARACHI, Pakistan – Floodwaters that have devastated Pakistan for five weeks headed to the Arabian Sea on Tuesday after swallowing two final towns, but the challenges of delivering emergency aid to 8 million people remained.
The floods have moved down from the mountainous northwest, submerging or affecting almost one-fifth of the country at their peak. Waters have begun to recede in the north and in the eastern province of Punjab, but they have been submerging towns in southern Sindh province close to the Indus River over the last 10 days.
The scale of the disaster has raised concerns about the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan, which is already reeling from al-Qaida and Taliban violence and massive economic woes.
Read more >> YahooNews
by Altaf Hussain, Hyderabad, Sindh
The deluge that brought immeasurable agony and destruction in the country was not unanticipated as China weather department had given forewarning of harsh monsoon months before the rains started. Whereas Sindh was even aware precisely about the magnitude of impending super floods as torrents which destroyed much of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and inundated southern Punjab was ultimately destined to discharge in Arabian Sea through river Indus.
Thus the super flood ultimately hit with full ferocity the fragile dykes of Sindh and inundated almost 1/3 of the province was not a surprise. Almost most of its northern districts have been submerged into flood waters leaving millions of people shelter less. Their only livelihood the standing crop and livestock has vanished. Once living contended in their huts and small houses since centuries these people are now nomads in their own homeland; malnourished sick and with no future in sight.
Now question arise as to who is responsible for the agony of millions of people? Although floods of high magnitude have pass through Indus system almost once in a decade but the scale of present destruction is unheard of in the history of floods. The reasons are obvious. Not only upkeep of protective Bunds was completely ignored and left to builders mafias to dig its gravel for construction, especially near big towns but the reverine forests existed on both sides of riverbed and used to protect the dykes were mercilessly slaughtered and virgin lands were allotted to influential people. They created there own dukes to protect their crops; one of the major cause of damaging the protective Bunds.
Obviously the maintenance and upkeep of Bunds is the sole responsibility of Provincial Irrigation Department. For which millions of rupees are allocated in the budget every year. The Irrigation Department not only failed to maintain the protective Bunds but when the crises unfolded abandoned its responsibility handing over maintenance to Pak Army. Now the senior irrigation people apart from justifying their failure sheepishly in talk shows are almost non existent on the sites.
The handing over safety of Bunds to Army at eleventh hour could not save millions of people from total ruin and obviously will not absolve Irrigation department from the destruction wrought by the river even in settled/pacca areas. This is clear cut case of dereliction on the part of irrigation department requiring independent judicial commission to fix guilt and take to task those howsoever powerful they may be who are found responsible.
The present regime, which claims to have roots in the masses, has to take immediate action against the culprits for whose negligence entire Sindh has suffered incalculable destruction.
August 29, 2010
Pakistanis Scramble to Escape Floods
By CARLOTTA GALL
THATTA, Pakistan — This town had already been evacuated because of the threat of flooding, but it filled up again on Saturday with tens of thousands of people fleeing floodwaters that had inundated surrounding districts and villages after the Indus River broke its embankments in several places.
Families camped in front of the courthouse, in a park, in an ancient cemetery, in schools, at intersections and on scrub land for miles on the edge of the town. There was no organization to it: people tied their cattle to bushes, rigged up awnings with colored cloth on sticks or tipped rope beds on their ends to create shade from the stifling heat of 104 degrees. Within hours thousands more people had swarmed into the town, many of them on foot. …
Read more >> The New York Times
By Cyril Almeida
When gossip is your oxygen, expect all sorts of silly rumours to proliferate. And when politics is your national sport, the silliness tends to grow exponentially.
Like the monster hiding in the cupboard that parents use to scare their children, the government is being warned, ‘Shape up or Kayani will come and eat your dinner’. The MQM’s warning to the PPP has been lapped up by conspiracy theorists eager to see …
Read more >> DAWN
To read about discrimination in aid with flood effected Hindu Community in Punjab >> BBC urdu
Local government says it can accommodate one million, but with some 30,000 in camps, ethnic tensions are rising
By TOM WRIGHT
KARACHI, Pakistan—Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Pakistan’s devastating floods are seeking shelter in this city of 18 million, exacerbating ethnic strife that has already escalated this year and threatens to destabilize the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.
Most of the refugees are ethnic Sindhis from areas outside Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed in the flooding that began more than three weeks ago.
Read more >> WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sijawal -Thatta : Nusrat Javed and Mustaq Minhaas, the reporters of Dunya TV are reporting that there is a breach in embankment of river near Sijawal and Bbano at Bbalo point in Thatto district and flood water is gushing into area from mighty Indus river (Sindhu river). Approximately, 2 to 4 million people are rushing from the area towards higher grounds. Evacuation of citizens are continue….
Courtesy: Dunya TV
Via >> Zem TV
>> Link
Floods and relief efforts
by Dr Javaid Laghari
I would also like to credit MQM efforts in Karachi that they too have contributed a lot to collect goods and sent them to upper Sindh. The bunds at Hyderabad owe a lot to the efforts of over 1000 of their workers (of course in addition to the large sindhi population, which goes without saying) to strengthen them despite over 900,000 cusecs flowing since last 2 days.
The recent floods have been the worst natural catastrophe to hit Pakistan in recent history. It is estimated that over 1500 have lost their lives, with over 20 million directly affected by the floods. Millions of acres of agriculture land, livestock and cattle, roads, bridges, property, and personal goods have been lost or destroyed. The loss is estimated to be in the billions of dollars.
Continue reading Sindh – The floods have brought us together
The reporters of Dunya TV are reporting from Jacobabad, the flood affected area of Sindh. They are narrating about the legend of Balochistan Nawab Akbar Bugti and John Jacob, an English officer of British Raj on Sub-continent, who loved Sindh and Sindhis, who refused to leave Sindh. John Jacob was a courageous English officer who had worked a lot for the betterment of Sindh and Balochistan. The people of Sindh pay him tribute and homage for his services to Sindh…
Courtesy: Dunya TV
Via>> ZemTV
>> Link
Why Doesn’t the World Care About Pakistanis?
Because they live in Pakistan.
BY MOSHARRAF ZAIDI
The United Nations has characterized the destruction caused by the floods in Pakistan as greater than the damage from the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Yet nearly three weeks since the floods began, aid is trickling in slowly and reluctantly to the United Nations, NGOs, and the Pakistani government.
After the Haiti earthquake, about 3.1 million Americans using mobile phones donated $10 each to the Red Cross, raising about $31 million. A similar campaign to raise contributions for Pakistan produced only about $10,000. The amount of funding donated per person affected by the 2004 tsunami was $1249.80, and for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, $1087.33. Even for the Pakistan earthquake of 2005, funding per affected person was $388.33. Thus far, for those affected by the 2010 floods, it is $16.36 per person.
Read more >> ForeignPolicy
Pakistan flood victims ‘have no concept of terrorism’
By Mohammed Hanif
…These areas are of no strategic interest to anyone because they have neither exported terrorism nor do they have the ambition to join a fight against it.
Their only export to the world outside is onions, tomatoes, sugar cane, wheat and mangoes.
The word terrorism does not even exist in Seraiki and Sindhi, the languages of the majority of the people who have been rendered homeless.
They belong to that forgotten part of humanity that has quietly tilled the land for centuries, the small farmers, the peasants, the farmhands, generations of people who are born and work and die on the same small piece of land.
Pakistani beauty pageant organizer faces criticism
– DENISE BALKISSOON
As tens of millions of Pakistanis struggle with the ongoing devastation of devastating flood now in its third week, sequin-clad contestants strut across a Brampton stage hoping to be Miss Pakistan World.
Read more >> TORONTO STAR
In this crucial moment of need we should stand all together and do our best is the order of the day. Sindhi Association of North America (SANA) and World Sindhi Congress (WSC) (USA & Canada Chapter) have joined hands together and doing at their maximum. Nevertheless Sindh Doctors Association UK (SDA) along with parent organization Sindh Development Alliance (SDA) deserves lot of appreciation and encouragements for donating generously for the relief efforts.
by Khalid Hashmani, McLean, Virginia, USA
Finally, the USAID authorities have accepted the long-standing demand of Sindhi-Americans to monitor fairness and equitability in the distribution of aid for flood victims in Pakistan and ensure that the aid reaches all provinces and is not controlled by the highly centralized federal government of Pakistan. The report gives a breakdown identifying several items by each province.
However, much more advocacy activities have to be undertaken by Sindhi-Americans for even the USAID report does not include province-by-province breakdown of large amounts and simply says “Affected Areas”.
To learn more about USAID, go to http://www.usaid.gov
USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/pakistanflooding/
The Center for International Disaster Information: http://www.cidi.org
Information on relief activities of the humanitarian community can be found at http://www.reliefweb.int
Canada has pledged $31 million in additional aid for flood-ravaged Pakistan, the federal government announced Saturday. The government had already announced $2 million in aid last month.
Read more: CBC News
by Khalid Hashmani, McLean, Virginia, USA
As of today, more than 250 million dollar has been pledged by International governments and communities to help the flood victims in Pakistan. It is great that many overseas Sindhis and Pakistanis have been generously donating through their favorite charities and organizing distribution of food and other essential items in the affected areas. However, equally important task is to make sure that the world communities will not only increase their commitments but also ensure fair distribution of aid to all provinces with full accountability to minimize leakage due to corruption.
The soul of the ‘Land of the Pure’
By Robert Grenier
It is the sheer scale of the devastation that leaves one speechless. As one surveys the overhead photos of vast lowland plains inundated with swirling brown water or stares at the upland images of mighty torrents washing away roads, bridges, entire villages, it is the utter scope of the disaster which almost defies comprehension, which far outstrips the power of words to convey.
Only the flint-hearted could be left unmoved by this. The heart aches for Pakistan.
But it is only in the photos of the people that one begins to grasp the full dimension of what is happening and, through that prism, to gain a glimpse into the soul of the Land of the Pure.
Endurance
One hears the stories of building frustration, of bitter complaints against a government so often indifferent in the best of times, and simply unequal to the challenge in these, the worst of times.
But this is not what I see in the photographs, in the images of entire families clinging to trucks to gain higher ground, of people stranded on roof-tops or on the raised strips of highways, of those isolated and forlorn, reaching for a bottle of clean water or a packet of sodden food dropped from a helicopter.
In these images one looks in vain for signs of hysteria, or for righteous indignation. What one sees instead is what one always sees in Pakistanis – endurance: Simple, often noble, endurance.
I have lived some years among Pakistanis. I cannot claim to have done them much good. Instead, my preoccupations have been those which animate the game of nations. I have served a great power which hunts its enemies, pursues its interests, and tries to meet what it sees as its responsibilities in distant places, far from home. I make no apology for this; neither do I expect great credit.
But one cannot travel among the Pakistanis, as I have been privileged to do, without developing a great admiration for their decency and their dignity….
Read more >> Aljazeera
Robert Grenier was the CIA’s chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002. He was also the director of the CIA’s counter-terrorism centre.
Letter to Editor From Sukkur
Dear Editor
I am surprised no anchor person or any media person has yet interviewed or focused over the present secretary irrigation, Sindh, who is posted as secretary since last eight years despite his retirement continued to remain on the post for three consecutive contracts.
Obviously on the basis of being a good pay master to higher authorities. He may be asked as how much funds he has so far utilized for so called maintenance of the river banks of sindh.
Actually it is the non maintenance (maintenance on papers only for utilization of funds worth millions per year) which is basic and root cause of such huge scale devastation e.g. breakage/ leakage of river banks on various places. It is strange that the government has so far taken no action against him, obviously for his capacity to bribe the higher authorities from the share of billions of rupees of funds which he has earned in his tenure of about 40 yrs in irrigation department being an engineer/technical person with extra ordinary maneuvering qualities. It is suggested that he be brought on media and questioned about utilization of funds for maintenance of river banks. And his efficiency to remain on the job continuously for 3 contracts.
I wonder why every anchor person calls the retired secretary and other retired engineers and has so far ignored the present secretary. The Irrigation Secretary Sindh has been serving/plundering this department since last 40 years. Ministers and governments change but he remains on the seat continuously. Even PPP, MNA complained about his corruption on the floor of national assembly but failed to arise any action against the blue eyed boy.
August 19, 2010
Courtesy: The Capital Post
http://www.thecapitalpost.com/news_detail.php?cid=12&nid=1683
All disasters have political implications and mismanaging one comes at a very high price for an elected government. While some in the west are even predicting the crumbling of the democratic set-up in Pakistan, a more likely outcome could be the de-politicisation of the people and disillusionment with the political forces. With their eyes on the river beyond, the leadership must get its act together; they have to catch up, and fast.
Political leaders must take charge of shaping the narrative of this disaster and the recovery from it. They must articulate clearly and consistently that the gods are not in the business of unleashing havoc on innocent people and whole societies are not punished for the misdeeds of a few.
It may sound like a cliché but the late Munir Niazi’s words ring truer today than ever before:
“Ik aur darya ka samna tha Munir mujh ko,
Mein aik darya kay paar utra to mein ne dekha.”
The translation of the above verse cannot fully capture all its connotations but the gist obviously remains that a bigger river is looking us in the eye when we land across the flooded rivers. The magnitude of the present disaster is such that all statements about the river beyond will remain understatements and every estimate an underestimate. What might not be an understatement though is that, without a cogent political leadership, a major slide backwards is inevitable for Pakistan.
Read mmore >> Daily Times
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