For some, rain is a blessing, while for others it may turn out to be a curse. Untimely and unstoppable rainfall brings misery to the people and their social well-being specially those bearing a poor infrastructure. In the times of catastrophic climate change, rain has become a cause of the destruction of property/infrastructure and loss of human lives. Climate change has made rainfall unpredictable leaving people and governments unprepared to take preemptive measures. Recently, a similar thing happened in Pakistan, where rainfall of 780% above the average level of the last three decades was recorded. The rain and floods affected more than 30 million people across Pakistan. Quetta, the capital, and only major city of Balochistan received unprecedented rainfall bringing destruction and unforgettable fear to the hearts of people.
Quetta is a water-scarce province where people are genuinely worried about their fate in the drying-up of the city. In the capital city, people are struggling to access drinking water, while agriculture is almost extinct in the city. In such scary times, when water scarcity is becoming an alarming issue, people were praying for rainfall so that groundwater reserves could be maintained and their fate in the city could be secured. However, when the untimely, unprecedented, and unpredictable rains started to pour down, people from the similar areas were praying and begging nature for the rain to stop.
Beginning from the night of 25thAugust, the rain continuously fell for more than 36 hours in Quetta and surrounding areas. The heavy rainfall led to the death of dozens of people in Quetta. In the capital city, hundreds of houses were wiped out entirely while thousands were damaged substantially. Roads and bridges collapsed against the force of water. The heavy rainfall also cut off the beating heart of Balochistan from the rest of the country by all means, including railways, land routes and air routes. Gas, electricity, internet, and phone connections were also cut off for almost a week, while in some parts of the city, they are still not available. With no internet access, the city ran out of cash as the banking system also collapsed. Besides the infrastructure damage, the psychological pain among the people of Quetta is the most worrisome. On the night of 27th August, children, women, and sick people were running out of their homes bare footed, when the hoax of Mangi Dam being broken, was propagated. The Quetta was in chaos as if hell was unleashed upon it.
The major reason for chaos and destruction in Quetta was the result of poor urban planning and mismanagement by the authorities. The city lacks a proper sewerage system for normal and predictable rain let alone such an unprecedented rainfall. The poor infrastructure of dams in and around Quetta was the reason for fear and chaos among the people. While some dams collapsed entirely others started leakage, creating fears among the inhabitants of Quetta. Poor urban planning and the weak status of dams are causing problems in the commute of daily activities. Ill-planned and unchecked housing societies in the outskirts of Quetta were also major sources of chaos and disturbance. In Quetta city, most housing societies are built on/in the way of rain streams altering the flow of water and creating further damage.
Quetta and surrounding areas are mostly barren lands that are in dire need of water. Since rainfall is the only source of sustaining underground water reserves, the people of Quetta should be joyful with the rainfalls. However, the poor infrastructure and mismanagement have made people scared of such unprecedented rains. The government needs to make sure that the blessing in the shape of rain should not become a nightmare for the people of Quetta. The sewerage system, the status of dams, communication links, and infrastructure must be improved and supervised routinely so that the lives and well-being of the people of Quetta are not put in danger again. The housing societies also need to be regularized so that the flow of rainwater is not disturbed while minimizing the damage along the rainwater streams.
The writer is a research officer at Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN).