By Zaheer Udin Babar Junejo
HYDERABAD: In Pakistan, natural disasters have become our fifth season. Regardless of whether it is summer, winter, spring, or autumn, one can expect a disaster at any time alongside these traditional seasons. Yet, the policy corridors, bureaucrats, and administrative authorities still appear unprepared and perhaps unwilling to address this reality.
What our provinces and districts must realize is that disaster management is not just about responding after the fact. It is about planning, anticipation, and service delivery, much of which must take place long before an emergency occurs.
Recently, I had the opportunity to lead an anticipatory action. When we approached the authorities, offering to support evacuation, orient communities, and provide essential assistance, their response was telling: “Do not open the door of hell.” In a way, they were right.
NGOs with limited resources cannot be a substitute for the government. Those missed by NGO services will inevitably turn to state institutions, where approval processes drag on for years before any support is sanctioned, if at all.
Moreover, centralized, office-based services are no longer relevant. People need doorstep facilitation, which most government institutions are neither equipped nor trained to provide.
Departments responsible for welfare and protection are often reduced to mere registration and legislative bodies, with little to offer beyond paperwork.
To make matters worse, disaster response structures are frequently ad hoc in nature, rarely staffed by individuals with the education or experience needed to handle the complexities of modern emergencies.
As a social worker, I have hardly had respite since the Covid-19 pandemic, constantly drawn into one crisis after another. I hope that one day, from the highest levels of government down to the grassroots, institutions will be truly prepared, enthusiastic, funded, concerned, and connected.
I dream of a time when no household in this nation has to suffer the cruelty of climate-induced disasters year after year; when the officials appointed to serve citizens genuinely understand and act upon what their people require.
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Zaheer Udin Babar Junejo is a Community Driven Development Specialist based in Hyderabad.
