The Angry Indus

Pakistanis are a resilient people. Pakistan’s close family culture nourishes resilience. For thousands of years the Indus people have lived on the banks of the river. They have shared in the feasts, floods and famines together. This months flood was not the first to affect the area–it will not be the last. The Indus Valley Civilization thrived on the banks of the Indus. Before that the Mehargarh Civilization thrived in the area. These were the original civilizations on the planet when most of Europe was frozen under the ice age and Bharat was jungle inhabited by hunter-gatherers. Throughout the ages the Indus people lived separate from the rest of Bharat. During Greek invasions Bactria included Pakistan but Alexander’s invasions did not extend beyond the Indus.

The Indus Pakistanis three thousand five hundred years ago will living together as a separate and distinct political unit which traded with Egypt, Mesopotamia and China the other Superpowers of the era.

The Indus Pakistanis in 3500 were known as Mulhullans (or sailors) because of their superb navigation skills. Today the modern Melhulans are known as Pakistanis. One thing is common, the river Indus. The river gives them sustenance today just like it gave them sustainment centuries ago.

Just like the Egyptian are tied together by the Nile, the destiny of Kashmiris, Baloch, Punjabis, Sindhis and Pakhtuns is tied to the Indus river. Today the Indus is angry. The raging river brings in misery and destruction. Normally the Indus brings happiness and pleasure to the people of Pakistan.

The people on the river are like family. They have issues, and yes they fight, but the river people of Pakistan know that in time of need they can come together. This is exactly what is happening today. Far from the maddening crowds and far from the media lights and cameras–Pakistanis find help with their relatives and friends.

Pakistan’s culture of close family ties is helping most flood refugees
Most people from Muzaffargarh have gone to stay with their relatives
Pakistan’s flooding pulls families together
Adnan Adil has written a brilliant piece in USA Today which in one of the few Western newspapers which has covered the floods brilliantly–even listing the ways in which Pakistanis can be helped. Kudos to USA Today.

NURPUR KUBRAN, Pakistan — Faiz Bakhsh can’t forget the 4-foot-high wall of water from the swollen Indus River that surged through his life Monday, taking away his house, his goats and buffaloes, the cotton crop he planted.

Now his life is in a tent he shares with his extended family here in the Muzaffargarh district of central Pakistan.

He shares an uncertain future with millions of other Pakistanis. Nearly 14 million people, the United Nations says — almost a 10th of the nation — have been affected by the heavy monsoon rains and swollen rivers of the past two weeks and will need help to get their lives back to a semblance of normal.

The U.N. estimates 1,600 people are dead; the government has confirmed 1,243 deaths.

Bakhsh, a farmer in his 60s, stands next to a stream of flooding water, unable to store any for drinking or sanitation because he has no pots. He recalls the last moments before the flood destroyed his village of Wan Pitafi.

KINDNESS COMMUNITY: How to help the victims of the Pakistan floods http://content.usatoday.com/communities/kindness/post/2010/08/how-to-help-the-victims-of-the-pakistan-floods/1?loc=interstitialskip

“Almost 40 men tried to herd all their cattle, ignoring the flood notice, but got stuck in the chest-high water,” Bakhsh said.

The village’s thousand people could save only their lives and a few cattle when a warning blared from mosque loudspeakers.

Pakistan’s culture of close family ties is helping most flood refugees, said Zeshan Haider, 28, an accountant from Muzaffargarh.

“Most people from Muzaffargarh have gone to stay with their relatives,” he said. His family is living with other siblings and cousins in nearby Multan. Pakistan’s flooding pulls families together By Adnan Adil Special for USA TODAY

Today the Indus river is angry. Many wonder why the river is angry. The Indus is not alone, the Kabul, the Jhelum, the Chenab, the Sutlej, and Beas serve the Pakistani delta. Pakistan has the largest canal system on the planet. Pakistanis have harnessed the water of the Indus to survive. Due to the population growth, the people are today living in the alluvial flood plains which used to left for the river to meander about. Today the river is changing its course and as it flows down, it engulfs many of the populated areas.

500 km of river bed’s floodzone is called “kacha”. This is the natural flood plain of the river. However today the “kacha area” is inhabited by millions of people. Those who live in the flood plain (kacha) are poor people who do not have the means to live in safe lands.  Some of the banks, on both sides of the river were built in 1932.  On both sides of the river–the British had built kushtas (dykes). These have since been elevated to prevent the river from overflowing. The angry river when filled to capacity has a propensity to go over these artificial banks.

From the Guddu Barrage to the Arabian Sea the distance is approximately 400 miles areas. These are in the 14 “Zilas” (Cantons) of of Sindh in areas like  Sukkaur, Khairpur, Larkana, Dau, Jamshoro etc. Khairpur has the largest flood zone “kacha” area. Two or three 3 lakh areas are under “kacha”. People living in these areas do so at their own risk. Property cannot be bought and sold in “kacha” however successive government have allocated the lands and even electrified the villages which exist in the flood plains.

Adnan Adil report on the flooding in Pakistan is describing the “kacha” landless peasants who now live in the flood plains of the mighty river..

Bakhsh has no money, but food markets and gas stations are not open anyway. The nearest city, Muzaffargarh, is nearly deserted after a half-million people fled.

With roads and bridges damaged, supplies are cut off.

“Not only the stranded people in surging water but also those living in nearby cities are facing a shortage of food,” said Saleem Buzdar, a correspondent for Geo News television. Six million need food, the U.N. says.

To save cities, the government breached levees along rivers and canals, cutting them open so water would spread widely over the countryside rather than surge powerfully downriver.

“We breached levees to drain out the water in villages. Otherwise the high flood … from the Indus would have obliterated the entire Muzaffargarh,” said Lt. Gen. Shafqaat Ahmed, commander of the Pakistan Army’s Corps II in the Multan region.

The fury of the rivers stretches more than 1,000 miles from the Swat and Kabul rivers in the mountainous northwestern region to the plains of the southern state of Sindh at the Arabian Sea.

“Nearly half the districts of the country were affected by the flooding, nearly 700,000 houses destroyed,” said Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.

On Wednesday, Europe released 10 million euros in emergency aid, according to Catherine Ashton, European Union foreign affairs chief. The United States announced it would increase its flood aid to $55 million. U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes appealed for $460 million in emergency aid.

Meanwhile, intermittent rain spells in the northwest are hampering relief efforts. Pakistan Army’s helicopter service was suspended for four days last week because of a downpour.

The government’s credibility in providing relief has been questioned. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s appeal to the nation for donations to his relief fund collected only 4 million Pakistani rupees — about $50,000 — in more than a week.

Some religious parties have been collecting funds for the flood relief and distributing aid, raising the prospect that extremist groups could join them and spread their influence. That happened after the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

To those who need help, though, it doesn’t matter.

“When my 2-year-old son is crying for milk, my concern is to feed him,” said Qamar Abbas of Muzaffargarh. “Who is giving me the milk is not my immediate worry.” Pakistan’s flooding pulls families together By Adnan Adil Special for USA TODAY

Pakistan are helping each other like no other nation can. The Pakistani propensity to help fellow human beings is unparalleled in the world.  Pakistanis spend more money per GDP than any other people in the world. This means that Pakistan give to their fellow human being a larger section of their earnings than any other nationality. The floods are no exception. The Young college going students are planning, organizing and working without government help. The news meid caught up in their own economic interests is incapable of reporting on the good deeds of the Pakistanis.

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on Aug 15 2010. Filed under Editorials, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry