Unprecedented Floods and Donor Fatigue

Yesterday seven people were killed only by snake biting in the flood ravaged areas of Pakistan. The deadly Python are increasing the sufferings of the flood victims in the Southern Punjab and now Sind.  While entire transportation infrastructure in Khyber-Pakhtunkhaw has been swept away, out of 5000 km roads only 350 has survived the ferocious flood waves. Out of 280 bridges only seven are left now.  Swat, Malakand is cut off from rest of the province and around one million population is besieged there because all the connecting bridges have been taken away by flood. Estimated cost of initial damage for Khyber only is more than $2B. While known number of casualties in just one province have exceeded 1400.

Overall in Pakistan this is the biggest calamity to have hit this country ever in its history. Unlike  the 2005 earthquake, the scale of destruction is huge and comprises the entire Pakistan. Crops worth  billions of dollars have been destroyed, estimated 350 thousand houses are there no more. 14 million  people are living under the open skies. They are fasting there without food, medicine and are victims  to potential disease outbreaks and insects. The scale of the disaster is unimaginable, hospitals,  schools and other infrastructure  cease to exist. There is widespread understanding that Pakistan has  been pushed back for at least 15 years. UN is calling it even the worst disaster than 2004 Tsunami.

But the problem is nobody is donating the money! Our media is focusing  on the shoe hurled at Zardari.  Government is defending that there was no shoe attack. Heated debates are being conducted over national media with appropriate time for commercial breaks. The fun and chatter of bickering politicians on the  TV is continued. Political point scoring is at its peak. Zardari is planning for another trip. This  time to Russia, though he has shortened it now. Though it could safely have been cancelled. This is the state of affairs in Pakistan!

Donors are not contributing enough this time. So far Prime Minister’s fund has received just Rs. Four  million! Once the flood waters recede the ominous task of of rehabilitation  of the homeless would  commence. To put it mildly, it would be like re-building half of the country. Crops, cattle and other  valuable of ordinary Pakitsani he owned, are there no more. A huge funding is required. No single state can do it. All of us need to realize that the magnitude of the destruction is huge and has  unfortunately could not be projected as it was supposed to be. Because of our deepest interest in the  dynamics and heat of politics we took it light and on Facebook and other social networks a vast 
majority of Paksitanis were busy in unfolding the ‘Joota’ mystry while town after town was getting  inundated. Very unfortunate!

Through this post I appeal you to please open your heart and contribute as much as you can. If you feel a credibility issue with the government or any NGO please figure out the people whom you think are  honest and hand it over to them. The donor fatigue is visible and understandable but please imagine one quainter of Pakistan has been rendered homeless. We have homes and comforts, please imagine if that is  taken away or water destroyed our property, what would be our feeling? This has actually happened in  Pakistan and fairly well-to-do people have also been forced to request for two meals a day in a relief  camp ( Even relief camps are not many and most of the people are wandering and have no where to go  after water took over their homes and properties) .

This is time to act, this is Ramadhan and the best place for your early Fitrana are the needy, helpless and flood-ravaged people out there. Lets keep the political point scoring for some other time. I am  purposefully not mentioning any of the charity here. However personally I’ve chosen International  Development and Relief Foundation ( www.idrf.ca ) a Canada based charity with a proven track record of  helping Pakistan in the past.

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