Daily Times

After intensive coverage in the first few weeks, survivors of the floods that devastated vast tracts of land along the Indus River, and affected all the four provinces as well as Gilgit-Baltistan, have almost completely disappeared from the media scene. The public too seems to have forgotten what was being dubbed as the ‘biggest flood disaster’ in history in terms of the directly affected populace, about 20 million. Once in a while one might hear an oblique reference to the devastation caused and how it has jolted our economy, but little do we know how the survivors are faring in winter. How has the aid that was pledged and collected been spent? Did all of them manage to get a roof over their heads before the severe cold threatened to take away whatever little life was left in their malnourished bodies? It seems not.

In its six-month review of the post-floods situation in Pakistan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has revealed alarming details of malnutrition among children in the flood-affected areas, particularly in Sindh. According to Sindh government estimates, 90,000 children (aged six months to five years) are malnourished. Unicef says about seven million people are still dependent on monthly rations. The situation in Balochistan is particularly bad, as 166,000 flood survivors have yet to go back to their homes and are living in 240 camps in Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in desperate need of help.

Unfortunately, as the media spotlight has shifted to the daily din of politics, public sympathy and even the attention of the authorities appears to have waned. But the survivors are waiting for relief and succour from both the government and the people. The extent of the damage is so severe and widespread that it cannot be handled by one agency alone. While the government should focus on rebuilding infrastructure, there is so much that non-government organisations and public groups can do to help the victims, not only in terms of collection of finances, but also volunteer work. After the receding of the floodwaters, roads have opened and the affected areas are approachable. There is a large space for volunteer work to help rebuild collapsed houses, provide medical aid, run awareness campaigns, etc, among the people in coordination with government and non-governmental agencies. It our duty as responsible citizens to not turn a blind eye to this massive tragedy and keep working on rehabilitation of the affected people till their lives return to something resembling normality. *