The Indus floods of 2010 have left more than 1700 people dead, more than two million homeless, and have directly or indirectly affected around 20 million people in Pakistan, devastating a country that was already battling a number of existential threats. Moreover, almost two months after the first flash-floods hit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (the former NWFP) in late July, the tragedy has by no means ended – it will not for years to come.
While the waters have begun to recede, they are doing so extremely slowly. In the process, they are flooding minor rivers and tributaries, causing massive overflows in the surrounding areas. Bridges and road links have either been inundated or destroyed, and more helicopters than are available are needed for rescue and relief.
Those who have been rescued, meanwhile, need food, shelter, clothing, medicines – and fodder for cattle. Many were evacuated at less than an hour's notice. While they knew that the floodwaters were headed their way, most initially stayed put because few realised the magnitude of the floods in the beginning. Further, nearly all of these were poor people, mostly tenant farmers and sharecroppers, whose lives revolved around the hamlets in which they lived. Voluntarily leaving homes, cattle and standing crops behind was a decision they were not ready to make, at least at first. Moreover, many had limited means of transporting their cattle, which are major contributors to the rural economy. But eventually, what does one take when one is ordered to evacuate in less than an hour? As can be seen in the accompanying photographs, many left with only a few changes of clothes for the children, and whatever cattle they could drag along.
Moreover, in rural Pakistan, entire families are typically centred on a single hamlet. This means that most of those who have been uprooted have no one to turn to for help, because the entire biraderi has been rendered homeless simultaneously. More alarming is the lack of availability of clean drinking water at camps set up for these 'internally displaced'. While mass availability of clean drinking water has always been an issue in many areas of Pakistan, the situation has now reached crisis levels. Cholera, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, typhoid, Hepatitis B and C, and skin diseases have started raging through the more populous camps.