By: Shanawar Ali
Pakistan is full of resources but poorly managed land. Every resource becomes impotence at the time of its dire need. This dilemma has made the lives of its citizens nasty, and brutish. Flawed governance, pathetic administration, and almost no implementation of the law are the key elements of this predicament. Moreover, the polarised political structure and the division in the political brass of the country have aggravated the conundrum. Ultimately, this situation has hampered the progress of this state which is one of the reasons for our fragile economy. A recent example of this dilemma is heavy rainfall and floods in the country.
Ironically, every such incident makes us realize our flaws in administration and fault lines in the governance system. However, it is more pathetic that we do not learn from our mistakes. Instead of organizing or managing our fault lines properly, our political elite initiates some politically motivated steps, and bureaucratic inertia implements those emergency cautions. As a result, mismanagement becomes a permanent flaw in the system. This is how this systematic trouble has now the dilemma that is shaking the internal and external boundaries of the state.
For example, according to Aljazeera, more than 33 million people are impacted by the record-breaking monsoon rains that started in June and the melting glaciers that have inundated around a third of Pakistan. Last Monday, the government increased its initial $10 billion estimate of damages due to the disastrous flooding to $30 billion.
Nearly a million people are now without a place to live, with many of them camped out in the open on highways and at higher altitudes.
What do all these facts predict? The answer is simple: we have failed to make a workable policy to tackle the effects of climate change. In addition to this, we are neither able to formulate an effective policy about water nor have we realized something about it. Sadly, we, as a nation, witness almost every year flooding in some areas of the homeland.
On the other hand, we are also a water-stressed country. In a 2018 survey, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rated the nations with the worst water shortages, with Pakistan coming in third. The South Asian nation would experience a complete water shortage by 2025, according to reports from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR).
Now, it is hard to describe what would be its impacts on the economy, which is already in a vulnerable condition. What would be the fate of the agriculture sector of this country? Food shortage, disruption in demand, and supply chain are also challenges that can not be tackled easily.
Owing to these floods, according to Foreign Policy, three million animals have perished, and 65% of Pakistan’s major food crops, including 70% of its rice, have been destroyed by the floods. According to Pakistan’s minister of planning, 45 percent of agricultural land is now damaged.
This was just an example of water mismanagement. There are plenty of other flaws that, as a whole, are creating a dilemma for this state. To escape such situations in this country, we have to understand our minor flaws in management instead of creating a polarised society with hollow slogans. We have no other option but to strictly formulate and implement the right policies for the betterment of our people as it is the true essence of a democratic political system.
The writer is a poet of two languages and a freelance journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]