In his speech at the launch of the United Nations’ $2 billion revised appeal for natural disaster relief, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called the flood in Pakistan “the worst natural disaster the United Nations has responded to in its 65-year history.”
One fifth of the country is underwater and over 1500 people have died so far. According to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 12 million people are now displaced and many of them have no access to clean water, food, or healthcare. The lucky ones are stuck in squalid conditions in hastily erected tents at refugee camps with a small allotment of food and water; others lack even that. Many have committed suicide out of despair. Children are malnourished, and instances of skin disease, diarrhea, and other conditions have become life threatening because adequate medical care is hard to find. Food crops have been virtually destroyed—a resulting wave of famine and disease may kill more people than the flood itself.
Since the general public seems immune to raw numbers and depressing pictures overused by the media, anecdotes like the ones above probably do little to persuade anyone that Pakistan is undergoing “the worst natural disaster” in history. Media coverage has framed people’s perceptions of Pakistan, especially in the United States, where coverage of the war in Afghanistan has portrayed Pakistan as a country with a duplicitous government half-run by the Taliban. Perhaps this is why aid organizations generally claim that coverage of the disaster in Pakistan came late and was less dramatized than normal. The death toll is also lower than those associated with earthquakes and tsunamis, so the sheer numbers don’t create enough urgency.
Pakistan borders Afghanistan, and militants frequently cross between the two countries. Despite its government’s efforts, Pakistan is considered partially under Taliban control. The Taliban is extremely effective at controlling and destroying whole villages, as well as NATO trucks trying to deliver aid. To reach people in need, UN convoys must often pass through territories controlled or besieged by the Taliban; unfortunately, some of the areas most affected by the flooding lie in disputed areas. In addition, it is difficult to even enter Pakistan. The UN only has so many helicopters and vehicles at its disposal, and few routes—excluding those that are underwater—are safe.
It is unclear whether donations to Pakistan relief will ever reach Pakistanis in need. Since less than half the contributions sparked by Haiti’s earthquake have actually found their way to Haitians, many believe that the added complexities of Pakistan’s situation will make it even more difficult for aid to be directly applied to aid on the ground.
Because of national governments and private donors’ worries that contributions may not reach their intended source, as well as the recent economic recession and national and private commitments to other recent disasters, Pakistan has received little of the aid necessary to support a full recovery. Pakistan also experienced disasters in 2005 and 2007, so the collective damage has been extensive.
The world must recognize the human cost of Pakistan’s crisis and aid Pakistan to the extent that it can. The needs of tens of millions of displaced people must outweigh any economic or logistical concerns about giving. As individuals, we can pressure our governments to put humanity before politics, and to value innocent Pakistani lives over Pakistan’s tenuous role in the war in Afghanistan.
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