By Tariq Naqash
Sunday, 29 Aug, 2010 HAVE YOUR SAY
Clouds of match-fixing over Pakistan cricket MUZAFFARABAD: For Roshan Jan it is not the first calamity to have shattered her life. Eighteen years ago, in 1992 also her family had faced the wrath of the Neelum River. The October 2005 earthquake had not been kind either. A portion of their house had been flattened. But last month’s flash flood has not only caused much damage and losses, it has also shaken their confidence and filled their nights with fear. Who knows when the river would swell and surprise them in their sleep.
“This flood has given us sleepless nights,” says the widow in her late sixties as she gazes across the sand-filled courtyard of her house towards the river still in flood hardly 6 feet away.
“Although we have cleaned our house and are living in it, we have this constant fear of the waters gushing into our house without warning”, she mused.
Ms Jan is among hundreds of families of Muzaffarabad whose houses and shops along the bank were submerged on the night of July 28 when the Neelum rose more than 20 feet above its normal level.
Casualties were averted as the residents had been warned by the authorities through megaphones eight hours in advance to vacate their houses and save whatever belongings they could. The force of the flood broke concrete and iron structures unhinging doors and windows and causing extensive damage to the buildings. Yet whatever was spared and remained standing was filled with tons of sand and mud making houses unliveable when the water receded. The shelters -- mostly built after the earthquake – suffered the worst damage.
Almost a month on, people are still struggling to remove the piles of sand from their houses. Habibullah, a street vendor, whose shelter next door looks more like a deserted barn, says he cannot sleep when it rains for fear of another flash flood. Nearby Mehboob Khan’s family has pitched a tent on the roof of their concrete house, whose two rooms are still filled with sand. When their house was inundated, they moved to their relatives but after two weeks when they returned they found sand packing the entire house. The only space they had was on the roof where they pitched a tent to live till the house could be made liveable.
“It’s difficult to live with anyone, even if he is your relative. A sparrow is comfortable in its own nest,” Mehboob Khan said. His sons were removing sand on wheel-barrows, complaining, like others, they were not paid any compensation by the government that could help them at least clean their houses.
“Except for a wheat flour bag, a 5 kilogram ghee tin and bag of sugar we got nothing in aid,” says Shamim Akhtar, also a widow. “Other than that, one NGO distributed toothpastes but those were expired.”
The affected houses in Plate are located along a walkway which was built in late 1980s by the Development Authority Muzaffarabad (DAM). The walkway was built to provide a strolling track to people during summer months. But over the years the masonry has proved a tremendous shield against the onslaught of the river.
The July 28 flash floods have damaged the walkway’s walls at many points making people living along it fearful of losing its protection
But many other areas, like Bela Makri and Mandi Mohalla, are not protected by any such wall and damages there were heavy.
Civic authorities have long been warning people not to live along the riverbanks because of the danger they pose to their lives in the event of incessant rains and flash floods.
Warnings renewed after foreign and local surveyors strongly suggested in the wake of 2005 earthquake that constructions along riverbanks and watercourses should not be allowed because these were ‘high hazard areas.’
But these cautions have hardly been heeded.
In Bela Makri, people continue to live in temporary shelters erected on the riverbank which threatens their lives even during normal monsoon, what to talk of floods.
Mahmood Khan, director general State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) says these families have been paid compensation several times in the past but they refuse to shift from here.
“I have pointed out at a high level meeting that civic agencies like electricity and public health engineering departments should stop providing services to such dangerous spots when these people have taken compensation as landless survivors,” he says.
But the poor residents say they had little choice. Real estate prices in Muzaffarabad have sky rocketed after the earthquake and even middle class people cannot afford a 10-marla piece of land. How can the very poor live elsewhere?
“If the government gives us alternative land and the cost to build a house we will quit this place instantly,” says Abdul Karim, also a victim of flash floods, in Plate. “We have no choice but to live in constant danger and despite the warnings,” he said.
DAM Chairman Zahid Amin however sees a solution to overcome this problem in the proposed satellite towns in Langarpura on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad.
The satellite towns are part of Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP) but their development is yet to begin although the land has been acquired and handed over to the relevant Chinese construction company.
“The families living in high hazard areas ought to be relocated if we want to prevent casualties in flash floods in future… Therefore the satellite towns should be developed urgently,” Mr Amin says.
However, given the snail-paced execution of MCDP, the satellite towns may take a couple of years to build. The people living in the hazard zone must therefore be ready to face two more monsoons.
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