Floods: lack of institutional approach
It is widely feared that the devastating floods will lead to poverty, hunger, extremism, insecurity, food crisis, skyrocketing prices, etc. Pakistan has travelled from one crisis to the other: Kargil war, the devastating earthquakes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the ill-fated killing of Benazir Bhutto and the recent floods. According to the latest figures released by the UN Financial Tracking System, $490 million has been committed, $324 million pledged, $230 million received as far the UN appeal is concerned. Moreover, the US, the EU, and the UK have also come forward to help Pakistan in this moment of crisis. However, the response of the Muslim countries in this hour of need to Pakistan is discouraging. The government needs to develop a mechanism that could look after aid generated within and without the country. It has to ensure not only this but also proper, appropriate, transparent and efficient utilisation of relief funds and goods. Amongst the short-term goals of the government should be to establish an ERRA-like commission. Its aim must be to institute a sub-commission at village, town and city level. The government must coordinate with DCOs. It should ensure quick and rapid relief and response to the flood-affected people and it should look after them in terms of water, food and shelter and security in tent villages. Third, the government should direct vice-chancellors of all universities to constitute committees of honest and dedicated people whose aim should be to install relief camps and ensure that money and goods collected through donations are utilised in a transparent and efficient manner. It is feared that individual collections at relief camps may be misappropriated. It would be more appropriate that there should be a proper mechanism to perform this entire work. The long-term approach of the government should be that once an ERRA-like commission is established, its aim should be to ensure the proper utilisation of funds. It should provide security to relief camps. Doctors, engineers and teachers should work in unison in the post-flood-affected areas. This way one can help check the spread of various diseases. Moreover, the work of reconstruction and rehabilitation should include the registration of people, in tent villages. Fourth, the government has to reorient its policies and priorities. The government, along with opposition parties, civil society and NGOs, must dedicate and commit it self in order to save the lives of millions of people affected by the floods.
Pervaiz Ali Mahesar
Jamshoro

Why object to Pak-China nuclear deal?
In 2005, the US and India struck a nuclear deal but nobody criticised this since the civil and peaceful nuclear deal was not considered a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But in 2010, when China renewed the same idea of a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan, purely for peaceful purposes, the US objected to it. The US has said it will vote against China's sale of nuclear reactors to Pakistan at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting. But it cannot stop China if it decides to sell the reactors to Pakistan without special permission from the Non-Suppliers Group (NSG). China has signed a $2.4bn agreement with Pakistan to supply two 340 megawatt reactors. Pakistan has an urgent need for more civil nuclear energy. Also, Pakistan has agreed that all nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan will be subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards which should be enough to satisfy US officials. The US should not oppose it as it had done the same with India. The hurdles are there, but still both China and Pakistan are moving forward in this context.
Huma Khan
Rawalakot

CNG stations in residential areas
THERE are many CNG stations in our area that are creating toxic waste. How is the government giving licences to stations without verification of rules? One can see almost six to seven CNG stations along approximately one kilometre of road. Furthermore, in the Gulberg area of Karachi, a CNG station has been noticed using a diesel generator, owing to which the area has high pollution. A resident who lives just behind the station died of lung cancer, as the lead-mixed diesel generator played havoc with his respiratory system. This station has also been a nuisance, as it has been creating noise pollution. We have been complaining everywhere but no one has paid heed to our request. Once the OGRA representative came to check, but he only gave a slight warning to the owner of the station not to use the generator again. After some time, he started using his diesel generator again to avoid using the line electricity to run his plant and save the energy bill. I request government officials, especially the officials of OGRA, to look into this matter and stop this slow poison that is affecting its citizens.
S. Wajahat Hasan
Karachi

Floods: the
spirit of Shahdadkot
On August 21, Shahdadkot city, a small interior Sindh town with a 1.6 million population, became directly the target of the unprecedented fast-flowing floodwaters which, before reaching this small town, had already submerged a number of similar towns, and thousands of villages, causing huge devastation and destruction. The water from the River Indus, near Ghouspur, gushed out on the night between August 7 and August 8. All efforts were made by the army to contain this water at various levels, but in vain. However, the dauntless will of the people took the lead. When the deluge reached Shahdadkot's outskirts, the army, with the help of local populace, started yet another effort to check the advances of the gushing waters. The town was threatened. The army commander on the site decided to raise a small bund in order to meet any kind of eventuality and to check the water flow. As time went by, water continued to increase which required constant improvement and strengthening of the bund, which certainly stopped further flow of water, except inundating areas close to it. The water level today is four feet above ground level, the depth varying from five to 10 feet, making a sort of lake. The 18km-long bund was raised by five to eight feet within 18 days, and that too with very rudimentary and obsolete machinery available in rural Sindh, thanks to the resolve of the people of Shahdadkot and the army jawans' help at this time. The 18km-long bund was built with great collective spirit. The bund saved not only Shahdadkot but thousands of people from losing their lives. This was all due to the timely decision of the local army commander, the spirit of the jawans and the local population of Shahdadkot. The raising of the protective bund in the shortest possible time, without the required wherewithal is heartening. One needs to see it to believe it. Kudos to the army jawans, local government officials and, above all, the people of Shahdadkot.
Nasrullah Tahir
Shahdadkot

NDMA and the Pakistan Navy
In the recent floods, the magnitude of destruction has been unprecedented, never witnessed in the last 60 years of Pakistan's chequered history. Although the government functionaries are desperately striving to address the grievances of the affected population, the quantum of devastation is much beyond the available resources in terms of cash and kind in the country. Solely blaming the NDMA for the failure to carry out relief operations in all the affected areas simultaneously is not justified. It would be naïve to expect that from an organisation which is still in its infancy. It has no resources of its own, but has to request other government agencies for resources so as to gear up its relief activities. First of all, the NDMA has to be made self-reliant in terms of funds and logistics with proportionate representation from the provincial government and armed forces (men and material) at its disposal during such a calamity for which detailed peace-time planning is mandatory. Also, during these floods one can notice the mere symbolic presence of the Pakistan Navy in the rescue operation whereas it should have been in the forefront in carrying out rescue operations, especially the evacuation of stranded people through boats, rafts, etc. The Pakistan Navy should have chalked out a detailed flood evacuation plan in consultation with the provincial governments and should have established its naval detachments, duly equipped with boats and rafts, placed at likely inundated stretches of land, having maximum concentration of the population. These naval detachments should have been placed well before the onset of the monsoons, aided by the Pakistan Army and the Air Force, and the bulk evacuation effort should have been carried out by the Navy. The resources for aerial evacuation should be placed at the disposal of the Pakistan Navy and only one agency (Pakistan Navy) should be made responsible for evacuation of the stranded population. The relief operations in terms of supply of food, medicines and other essential commodities should remain the responsibility of the NDMA; the transportation of relief goods to the affected areas by roads should be undertaken by the Army while aerial logistics should be ensured by the Pakistan Air Force. In the mountainous areas, however, the Army and PAF resources should be placed at the disposal of NDMA for obvious reasons. The Pakistan Navy should play its role effectively during floods including those which are expected in future, as a result of global warming.
Brig. (retd) Bartar Naqvi
Rawalpindi