Devastating floods and an open threat to public health in Pakistan.

Natural disasters are what the term says; they come from nature and act against living things. Pakistan, from its inception, has always confronted a susceptible threat from natural disasters. Whether it is the earthquakes that severely jolted a part of northern Pakistan in 2005 or the floods that swept away everything with them in 2010, we can say, with surety, that Pakistan has never been safe from natural disasters like other countries. This time, amidst political instability, economic crisis, and tensions between civil leadership and military establishment, an uninvited disaster came. In the initial days, what was thought of as a blessing from the Almighty soon turned out to be a “worst disaster” that displaced more than 33 million people in the nation.

The devastation caused by the floods can be aptly described in the words of the UN Secretary-General. Antonio Guterres remarked that he had never seen climate carnage on such a scale. By now, more than 1400 people have lost their life due to the floods. One-third of Pakistan is completely submerged in water. The worst hit province of all is Sindh. Six hundred thirty-eight people have died in the province. Per statistics, 750,000 animals have lost their lives due to the floods. This unfortunate event can cause milk, meat, and egg shortage in the whole country. 65% of the food basket of Pakistan has been wiped out. Twenty-one million acres of land have been destroyed. This is devastating news for the already suffering Pakistan. The prices were already surging due to the Ukraine-Russian war and these floods. This situation is expected to create a food shortage problem in the country. It is horrifying, and many officials are not discussing it openly. Everyone knows the horror of this happening in a flood-affected Pakistan.

At times like this, the Pakistani nation stood with their flood-affected brethren. Hundreds of charity organizations are working to provide relief to the flood affectees. The former prime minister ran a telethon and gathered around 500 crores. Every person who has been marked safe in these floods is helping the other one. This provides us with an exemplary example of brotherhood amongst the Pakistani nation. Many of
the organizations are providing aid to Pakistan. The government has estimated a loss of over $30 billion. UN has appealed to collect a further 160 million to assist Pakistan. 2 more planes carrying tons of relief from the USA have arrived in Pakistan. Meta has also decided to give $125 million to Pakistan. Humanitarian aid from around the world is coming to Pakistan.
All these challenges look small in front of another significant challenge. An open threat to public health. The public health facilities are already damaged or destroyed. This seems to cause a complication. The already suffering people now have little to no access to medical facilities. This will dwindle the already worsening situation. One thousand four hundred sixty health facilities have been damaged due to the ravaging floods. This means that the majority of the people will suffer in the upcoming months. In a country with an already poor health system this synergies the misery of the people. As per statistics, 371, 440 patients have been brought to the health camps all around Sindh. Of these, 18,804 reported gastro-related diseases, 20,968 skin related, 8,731 had malaria (suspected), 80 dengue (suspected), and 43,903 complained of other problems. The statistics are quite distressing. Where one-third of the country is submerged in water, treating patients with such a large number seems to be impossible. This will surely lead to health care system management depression. Furthermore, I fear, the influx of patients in hospitals in other cities will be witnessed which will directly put pressure on the already crumpling system. In Balochistan, the condition is terrible. Within a single day, 5059 cases were reported. The majority of the cases were of diarrhea. The troublesome point is that of these 2218 cases were other viral disease cases. Which directly implies that a virus outbreak is already on its way. Before discussing the outbreak, it is worth mentioning that many people are dying from snake bites. This has caused a disquieting situation in the flood-affected areas. The chances of an outbreak are evident here. It might be diarrhea or malaria. Whatever it will be, it will cause great havoc. The country nearly managed to escape the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic. The chances are less that it will again happen. As the country is already suffering. Moreover, Parliamentary Secretary for Science, IT, and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Rubaba Buledi warned that many the pregnant women will die during childbirth in the flood-affected areas. She also added that 138,000 pregnant women are present in the flood-affected areas. Of these, 40,000 are going to deliver in this current month. Adequate medical teams and camps are to be set up to assist these 138,000 women. Furthermore, per her details, Naseerabad, a food-affected area, is already reporting multiple cases of malaria. The water proves to be a good source of mosquito growth. In such a situation, shortage of anti-malarial pills is expected. Malaria, diarrhea, and cholera are the major diseases spreading in flood-affected areas.
What we need to do is to donate as much as possible to the flood relief funds set up by various organizations. Moreover, we need to supply medications and sanitary pads to the people stuck in the flood-affected areas. Appropriate medical camps are to be established in the camps and tent cities. The authorities while providing relief to the flood-affected people should keep the providence of health facilities also. For pregnant women, mobile medical camps should be created to facilitate childbirth. The availability of sanitary pads should be assured. However, the district government should play its role. The exemplary leadership and administrative abilities manifested by ADC Nowshera, Qurat-ul-ain Wazir is worth applauding. All the district officials should follow her example and help the people of their respective districts. In the end, I want I would like to close this article by saying, “exemplary brotherhood and administrative leadership can avert any natural disaster.”