The Flood Disaster, a Recurrence in Baluchistan
Author: Balatch Baluch
Baluchistan is a land that is in a critical situation even by the development standards of a hundred years ago, a land whose name is synonymous with suffering and calamity.
The livelihood of the people of Baluchistan is in the most critical condition. They are deprived of even the most basic necessities such as water and bread. The education of their children by itself is an even older demand, great wish for its inhabitants. In such situations, the people look up to the sky and hope for an invisible aid, but alas, the sky is also at odds with this land. Every now and then the sky shows its wrath to the mud huts and meager farmlands and drowns all that people possess. The floods harm the already fragile people.
But, who is to blame? the sky that sometimes offers drought and other times flooding? Or the rulers who have built this land in such a way that whatever that comes from the sky turns to disaster in this land?
Baluchistan is a land full of water and resources, it is connected to the largest oceans, but alas, these resources either remain unused or used to fill the pockets of others, and in their absence Baluchistan is deprived of the minimum of infrastructures and its people remain poor and hungry. That is why whatever the heavens offers will be destroyed on this land.
Rain and floods are natural occurrences that happen all over the world, but in less places in the world, this amount of rain can make a large percentage of the people of that land homeless and miserable. In other parts of the world they have used this God-given source for the benefit of the people. Rain is used to irrigate the lands instead of destroying agriculture.
In Balochistan, after each flood, a repetitive story of charitable donations and repeated government interventions and sometimes abuse of people’s suffering takes place without a basic solution to treat this recurring problem. In the end, nothing is achieved, only the the dignity of the people of this land is trampled.
The reality is that Balochistan does not need pity and compassionate performances by grandstanding politicians. It is the duty of the rulers of this land to respect the rights of people properly and use its resources to improve the infrastructure of this land, so that the rains do not turn into a destructive force. Rain could be an asset for this ancient land and its people would no longer be afraid of seeing rain clouds in the sky.