Residents of this Pakistani village whose lives were washed away by
last year's floods complain they have been largely forgotten. Sewage
runs through the street. Some people still live in tents under the
searing summer sun. Others had to sell their cattle and take on heavy
debt to rebuild their homes.
Not far away, in Wairar Sibra
village, locals are getting ready to move into new houses, complete
with electricity and courtyards, thanks to the largess of the wealthy
man who owns the power plant looming over the settlement. The villagers
are excited because the new homes are even better than the ones they
had before the floods.
The contrasting fates of the two villages
in central Punjab province are a testament to the uneven response to
Pakistan's worst-ever floods, which hit a year ago and inundated a
Britain-sized chunk of the country.
Often the deciding factor
between success and failure in Pakistan is how much access people have
to the rich and powerful, a rule that seems true even in the wake of a
natural disaster.
Many of the 18 million people affected by last
year's floods, which were triggered by heavy monsoon rains, were among
the country's poorest and most vulnerable. Despite hundreds of millions
of dollars spent by Islamabad and international donors, millions of
people are still in dire need of help, and the disaster has left them
even more susceptible to flooding that has already started again this
year.
Nazir Ahmed is still living with his family in tents set up
amid the ruins of his home in Mor Jangi. The 35-year-old brick kiln
worker has little hope of rebuilding his house since his daily wage of
less than $3 is barely enough to feed his family and pay to treat their
frequent bouts of malaria and diarrhea.
"I haven't been able to
save money, and I don't have any land or cattle to sell," said Ahmed,
as his five young daughters and two young sons gathered around him.
"Only God can help us rebuild our house."
Mor Jangi's 3,000
residents had no warning last year that floodwaters, which originated
in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were rushing toward their
village, located on the banks of a branch of the Indus River. Over
seven hours on July 28, the water level rose 15 feet (4.5 meters),
damaging hundreds of houses in the village and destroying acres of
crops, said Abdel Latif, a 28-year-old farmer.
Many of the
villagers fled to relief camps and returned two months later after the
water receded, said Ishfaq Ahmed, a 26-year-old highway patrolman. They
were counting on receiving about $1,160 promised by the government
through its "Watan" cash card program — the minimum needed to rebuild
one room of a house, he said.
But the government has only
distributed about $232 per family, and the Watan card program has been
plagued by allegations of corruption. Some families in Mor Jangi didn't
receive Watan cards, which are meant to be used at local ATMs, and
complained that a local landowner asked for about $14 to get them a
card and then pocketed the money. The claims could not be verified, but
similar allegations of corruption have surfaced throughout Pakistan.
Residents
did receive seed and fertilizer from an aid organization in November,
allowing them to grow a good crop of wheat they harvested in May. But
many villagers had to sell their cattle and take out loans of up to
$1,160 to rebuild their houses, Ahmed said.
Even some
international aid ended up doing more harm than good. A Czech aid
group, People in Need, hired a local engineer to build a sewage system,
but villagers accused him of using only a fraction of the materials
needed and keeping the rest for himself.
The engineer, Bashir
Nadr, denied the allegations. But several streets in the village are
now awash in sewage. The head of People in Need in Pakistan, Hubert
Topinka, could neither confirm nor deny the corruption claims.
The
villagers are worried about what they will do if the rains again
transform the river into a force of destruction. Monsoon rains have
already started lashing parts of Pakistan and could continue through
September.
"We have sold our assets and our cattle and don't have
anything to sell except a small piece of land if floods come again, so
we are relying on God," said Niaz Hussain, a 60-year-old farmer.
It's a different story in Wairar Sibra, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) away.
Floodwaters
swept through Wairar Sibra on Aug. 4, destroying all 168 houses in the
village and sending the 1,250 residents fleeing to relief camps, said
Malik Mureed, a 35-year-old farmer. But the village is next to a power
plant owned by one of the richest men in Pakistan, Mian Muhammad
Mansha, and several villagers work there.
Mansha's company and
the Punjab government have agreed to rebuild 107 of the houses at a
cost of nearly $700,000, said Mureed, who is helping with the project.
The houses, 101 of which are already complete, are even better than
those that were destroyed since they are constructed with bricks
instead of mud, he said.
"We are very happy," said Mureed. "The power plant always takes care of us and meets our needs."
Residents
in many other villages across Pakistan are far less fortunate. At least
8 million flood victims remain in dire need of basic health care, food
or shelter, said Islamic Relief, a U.K.-based aid group.
"Twelve
months on, a largely unnoticed humanitarian crisis is continuing in the
flood-affected areas," said the group in a report released this month
called "Flooded and Forgotten."
Last year's response saved lives,
especially from disease, and alleviated suffering, but the scope of the
crisis was overwhelming.
The floods killed around 2,000 people,
damaged or destroyed some 1.6 million homes and thousands of acres of
crops, said the international aid group Oxfam. More than 800,000
families remain without permanent shelter, and more than 1 million
still need food assistance, it said.
Reconstruction is predicted
to cost up to $10.9 billion — almost one-quarter of Pakistan's national
budget. It is unclear how Pakistan will come up with the money, and
some flood victims complain that corruption has prevented them from
benefiting from funds that are available.
The problem could get
worse this year because Pakistan's threshold for coping with flooding
is lower. Many of last year's victims are extremely vulnerable, and
much of the flood infrastructure that was damaged, such as dikes, has
not been repaired.
"As Pakistan faces another monsoon season and the likelihood of more disasters, the country is not prepared," Oxfam said. AP
