ReliefWeb: Floods Update

This report was issued by UNOCHA Pakistan. It covers the period from 23 to 25 August. The next report will be issued on or around 27 August.
I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
• Significantly scaled up assistance in Sindh and Punjab continues to be required; WASH, health, shelter and food interventions remain the key priorities.
• New areas in Sindh have been inundated in recent days as floodwaters move through the south of the province.
• With a growing risk of outbreaks of waterborne disease, close coordination between health and WASH clusters is of increasing importance.
• The logistics cluster continues to scale up its capacity to support in-country movement of relief items; reaching populations cut off by floodwaters, landslides and damaged infrastructure is an overarching challenge and additional airlift capacity is required.
• The Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan (PIFERP) is now 60% covered. A revised version of the plan, taking into account the large increase in numbers in need of assistance, is due to be launched during the third week of September.

  Source: Relief Web

Extreme Iran

Calm Before the Storm: Why Hungry Millions May Change Pakistan

So here we are again, crisis and mismanagement.As much as I would like to honor the government with my shoes, I think it is best to use this time to highlight more important issues.

I would remind my readers to skim through Pay your Respect to BB: Kill and destroy post where I highlighted how poverty can cause discontent and is the ultimate time-bomb. I have reproduced the excerpt for your convenience.

To sum up, when people see no hope of getting out of cycle of poverty, they take on opportunities to vent their frustration. It is not fault of a person that he is born in a poor family, combine that with inadequate government support to help him get out and you find generations living in poverty.

Lack of prudent policies and deterioration of judicial system end gives way to array of injustices. Inflation, harrasment and social inequality just contribute to this outburst which often takes violent forms. Case : France riots of 2005

I would also like to bring your attention to Wikipedia’s List of Riots and explore the reasons behind the deadliest riots. for example,

1. Watts Riots : The term Watts Riots of 1965 refers to a large-scale riot which lasted 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in August 1965. By the time the riot subsided, 34 people had been killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,438 arrested. It would stand as the most severe riot in Los Angeles history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The riot is viewed by some as a reaction to the record of police brutality by the LAPD and other racial injustices suffered by black Americans in Los Angeles, including job and housing discrimination.
2. Chinese Riots China’s Public Security Ministry reported 87,000 mass incidents in 2005, up 6.6 per cent over the number in 2004, and 50 per cent over the 2003 figure. The ministry has not released the latest figures.
   
3. French Riots  The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November (in French Les émeutes de banlieues de 2005) was a series of riots involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois.The vast majority of the rioters were of Algerian descent. Events spread to poor housing projects (the cités HLM) in various parts of France. A state of emergency was declared on 8 November 2005. It was extended for three months on 16 November by the Parliament

And the Effects before the landfall are visible

1. SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani flood victims, burning straw and waving sticks, blocked a highway on Monday to demand government help as aid agencies warned relief was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.

Public anger has grown in the two weeks of floods, highlighting potential political troubles for an unpopular government overwhelmed by a disaster that has disrupted the lives of at least a tenth of its 170 million people. Reuters

  2. MUZAFFARGARH (Pakistan): Food riots have erupted in several flood-affected areas in Pakistan’s Punjab province, where starving people are attacking vehicles carrying relief goods.

The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) officials said that their convoy had been attacked and vehicles looted in Muzaffargarh district. Similar attacks were reported on vehicles of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and IOM in the province.- India Times 

3. At least two people were killed in a clash Wednesday between police and a mob protesting power outages in Pakistan’s Punjab province. 

The protesters threw stones and blocked the Grand Trunk Road between Islamabad and Peshawar, even as hundreds of angry people clashed with police, Xinhua reported citing police officials.Police fired in the air to disperse the demonstrators. They later said that two people died during the protest.Power supplies in Pakistan have been badly affected by one of the worst floods in the country’s history, which have so far left over 20 million people homeless.- Sify

4. The desperation at camps for evacuees is such that people fight over aid trucks that come in, Khan said.
If the situation is not stabilized soon, the situation could become dire, he warned.

“The consequences in three months of this — if this is not addressed by us — the country is going to go into chaos,” Khan said. “We could implode. We could have starving people. And you’re talking, again, about 20 million people in dire straits. Where are they going to go with no food, no homes, no money, no crops, no animals?” – CNN

5. Anger has been rising against the government, which has drawn a barrage of criticism over its perceived slack response to one of the worst disaster’s in Pakistan’s history.

So far, flood victims have turned against each other to compete for relief handouts. Food riots could erupt and that could eventually lead to social unrest, but only if food shortages become a huge issue. – Montreal Gazette

6. Muzaffargarh hospital is treating 1,000 flood victims and that number is likely to rise. People lay on the floor or were using their own rope beds because of a lack of space.”I came to hospital around dawn and I’m still waiting for my number,” Naseem Bibi said as her five-year-old daughter, suffering from diarrhoea, slept on the ground. Reuters – Relief Web

7. Muzamel is just five days old and sleeps peacefully under a makeshift mosquito net, blissfully unaware that her family home is now an island, still surrounded by water one month after the floods hit. Reuters – AlertNet

8. “The flooding is only the start of a bigger catastrophe that will continue to claim lives,” – International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

9.”Fever has gripped me since the raging waters swept away our mud house. I have never been that terrified in my life”. Gamul Mai developed a high fever after escaping a three feet water wave in her village in Sindh, Pakistan. “We were sleeping when I heard screams that the embankment is breached. At first I thought that we are going to die. However, we managed to escape with charpoys and my six grand children”, she said.- Caritas

 

SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION

Will the Leaders still wear Suits in searing heat

Given that we have a power crisis how does it make sense to wear a suit in a press conference, which in turn would require huge air conditioning to keep the surroundings cool and in turn would waste a lot of energy.

LAKEER KAY FAKEER 

Decline in Effectiveness of Monetary Tools