Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: Left high and wet

On 28 July, a family in Peshawar received a distressing call from relatives in Swat's Madyan resort town. The caller and his family had, as a last-ditch effort to save themselves from the surging flash floods, taken shelter on the roof of their house. They requested immediate evacuation by helicopter. By the time the rescue teams got there, however, the devastating monsoon rains of 29 July and the ensuing floods had already done the damage. There was no sign of house or habitation at the spot, nor of the desperate family that had been pleading for help.

Similar tales are related from others in flood-hit areas. Figures from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) paint a grim picture of the devastation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and the provincial government will need billions upon billions of rupees, once the flood waters recede, to reconstruct hundreds of bridges and roads that have been washed away. Moreover, around 660,000 people in Swat, Kohistan, Shangla and Upper Dir districts (of the 1.5 million people who have been rendered homeless in the province), have been left without food or shelter due to inaccessibility.

Charsadda district's Munda headwork, a 50,000-cusec irrigation channel that directed water to farmlands in the agriculture centres of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, crumbled on 29 July, unable to withstand the pressure of the 450,000 cusecs rushing through it. Before the current deluge, the highest level of floodwater that had passed through the British-built headwork was 170,000 cusecs, in August 1929. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in Peshawar has put the estimated costs of damage to private and public property and infrastructure at nearly USD 2.2 billion, and warns that these figures are likely to increase.

Experts have also warned of 'critical food insecurity' in the coming months in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, due to the destruction of standing maize, sugarcane and rice crops on some 466,000 acres. A long record of militancy, and the influx in 2009 of over two million displaced people from Malakand, Bajaur and South Waziristan, had already pushed food security in the province to 'a critical stage'; the floods have now raised the level to 'alarming', according to World Food Programme spokesman Amjad Jamal. Farmers will begin wheat cultivation in October, but will need to put in massive time and hard work to undo the damage to their farmland.

In Swat, which is still struggling to recover from destruction by the Taliban, communication systems have been almost completely destroyed. The flooding has also halted nascent efforts to revive the tourism industry, reeling from the effects of the Taliban militancy and the ensuing army operation. 'The incoming water has destroyed bridges and roads leading to [the famous summer destinations of] Madyan, Behran and Kalam. They will take years to rebuild,' said Ghulam Farooq, editor of a regional paper, Shumal.

Officials and government ministers concede that flood repairs will take priority over the reconstruction related to the anti-militancy operations. 'We fear that the devastation caused by the flooding will delay the Swat reconstruction projects,' PDMA chief Shakil Qadir said. The immediate priority, government spokesman Mian Iftikhar Hussain noted, is to restore road links to help stranded people.

Slow response

While aid from outside trickles in slowly, Pakistan will also need to look inward to generate around PKR 400 billion (USD 4.7 billion) for the losses incurred by the national exchequer in the wake of the floods. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has already redirected the PKR 60 billion annual development plan towards the reconstruction of the flood-affected areas; Punjab and Sindh are expected to follow suit. Revenue targets set this June, for the 2010-11 federal budget, have already become unrealistic as a result of the devastation.

Experts, meanwhile, are unanimous that deforestation and encroachment of riverbanks, and the resulting blockage of waterways, have played a role in worsening the floods. The state's preparedness to cope with such flooding has also been exposed as weak. The total annual budget of the PDMA for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is merely PKR 150 million. Not enough boats and tents were stockpiled in the province to help out the stranded population in inundated Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar districts. The provincial government was ordering boats from Karachi while civilians were drowning within 35 km of Peshawar.

Politics has also played a negative role in the relief and rescue operations. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani's own constituency, in Multan district in Punjab, was hit by the flood. This led to a controversy over the distribution of relief goods coming from the international community, with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government accusing the FDMA of 'focusing attention' on Multan, where the destruction had been 'comparatively less'. Slamming the 'partisan attitude' of the federal government, based on data regarding the distribution of goods by the NDMA, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa authorities also warned that 'such treatment would increase the sense of deprivation' in the province, and that, the 'war on terror will be affected if the province's needs are not heeded'.

Pakistan will need heavy investment in reforestation in Azad Kashmir, Malakand and Hazara, as well as stricter enforcement of building codes in hilly areas, if future flooding is to be handled more efficiently. The government needs to immediately start processing compensation to affected people, to help them rebuild their lives after they return home. The distribution of free fertiliser and seeds for the next two years will also have to be a priority, in order to recover agricultural losses and prevent the country from plunging deeper into food insecurity – a chaotic situation that, as seen elsewhere, would best suit fundamentalist and extremist groups.

~ Iqbal Khattak is a contributing editor to this magazine