Monsoon Floods in Pakistan

The UN has called it one of the worst natural disasters in history. Less than two months ago Pakistan fell apart, literally. By the end of July 2010, Pakistan was declared a state of emergency as heavy monsoon rains covered most of the country including the regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan.

People were able to evacuate but by estimated 1,600 people have died as a result of the flooding and over 6 million people are estimated to be homeless according to Reuters. This is by far the biggest devastation Pakistan and the world has ever seen.

As the floods began to get worse some Pakistani’s remained behind to protect their homes from the looters who may appear after the floods subsided. They watched as neck deep waters destroyed everything around them and took away their homes. A few food vouchers were given out to those survivors who had remained behind to protect their homes. Without very much food available the vouches proved to be useless.

“We have nothing to eat, we just sit here and wait, sometimes we get food and sometimes we do not. It’s a small amount, a small bag. We are sitting under the hot sun.” – Reuters (YouTube)

Those who did leave are just now beginning to make their way back to their homes to discover what, if any, pieces of their homes are left. Many are traveling home by foot, as they have no other mode of transportation around the waters that remain. The US has helped by providing temporary bridges to help travelers get to their destinations.

Devastation is continuing as they are beginning to return home and find that flood waters have wiped out their homes completely. Some of those who are returning are being held at gunpoint by those who stayed behind as they are try to protect what is left of their possessions. Instead of working together to begin temporarily rebuilding, people are beginning to turn against each other.

With mud houses and homes being destroyed all over the county, many have turned to the Pakistani government for help, but found very little response since the initial flooding began. For the most part the government has not been seen and Pakistanis are relying on private relief agencies for help. Between both the government and private relief agencies only 5 percent of the help that was required had been provided as of the end of July.

Many Pakistani soldiers were involved during the initial two weeks of flooding as they rescued those who were trapped by helicopters, pulling them out to safety. Yet, now that the flood waters have started to go down, the government has not sent help for those who have lost their homes or are looking for simple things such as water clean enough to drink.

The aid is very different than what had been sent to Haiti after the earthquake on January 12, 2010. With many groups still focusing on Haiti, some say that Pakistan hasn’t received nearly the amount of help it needs.

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