I have just arrived in Islamabad and will be here for the next three months. The people and the stories have already made an impression. A young girl told me that she had escaped from Sind province in the far south of the country. This is the area hardest hit by the flood, but it was not the flood that had taken her away from her loved ones. She had run away from home in desperation to avoid being married off to an agricultural owner her father’s age, who had used the family’s debt as leverage to get her as his second wife. Unfortunately, the girl’s story is not unique. Redd Barna fears that children and women will fare even worse in the wake of the flood, with the looming danger of violent conflicts. I have traveled to Pakistan to assist Save the Children’s country office with the aid work. One third of Pakistan is under water. Over 33 million people are affected and 16 million of them are children. The total cost of loss and damage is expected to exceed $32 billion. The country already has major economic difficulties and suffers from political instability. Around 7.8 million people have been internally displaced due to the flood, and it is expected that many more will starve in the future. This fuels existing conflicts between the various ethnic, religious and tribal-based groups, all of whom are fighting for the same scarce resources. Half of all flood victims are in Sind. The province has long been known for stability, diversity and tolerance. Due to an increasing struggle for scarce resources, it is now threatened by violent extremism, crime, political corruption, and tribal feuds. In the midst of the distress and chaos that is unfolding, the protection of the most vulnerable groups is non-existent. Especially women and children from already marginalized and displaced groups risk being exposed to gender-based violence such as sexual abuse and exploitation, child marriage and forced marriage. They also end up at the back of the queue for food, water and shelter if humanitarian aid does not arrive. The competition for scarce natural resources poses a major risk of hostility and unrest among the internally displaced population and host communities in Sindh. Most of them are among the poorest in Pakistan. The religious and ethnic minority groups in the province in particular are now at the very bottom of the economic pyramid. They often function as so-called haris (tenant farmers and sharecroppers), and lack legally enforceable property rights over agricultural land, which is often the only way for them to secure income to survive. This makes them extra vulnerable now that areas of arable land have been destroyed. In the first acute period after a disaster, the most important thing we do is to give flood victims food, money and shelter. We work together with local partners with extra attention to strengthening and involving all groups in a local community, and to ensure that the most vulnerable groups and children receive help. We provide them with protection and psychosocial support. It is during the chaos that occurs in a crisis that children are most likely to be separated from their caregivers, exploited or exposed to abuse. Our teams are also in the process of offering schooling to the flood-affected children, to prevent the negative effect of humanitarian disasters. Several of the schools are now either destroyed or used as shelters. The experience of the flood in Pakistan in 2010, and other ongoing climate-induced disasters, shows that such crises intensify ethnic, religious and social rivalries. Several studies point out that violent clashes between different ethnic groups increased in the wake of the flood 12 years ago, where religious extremist groups and separatist movements were allowed to grow in the chaos after the disaster, and that conflicts were more easily mobilized. Several extremist organizations now see opportunities for their own gain in the humanitarian disaster, by using money as bait. If the emergency aid is not perceived as fair, accessible and effective, it will greatly worsen the existing humanitarian disaster. Women and children are often the biggest victims in violent conflicts, and their rights are set back during crises and chaotic conditions. We face enormous human suffering and further destabilization that will have ripple effects far beyond Pakistan. It is therefore absolutely crucial that credible aid actors who now operate in Pakistan are strengthened and supported by the international community. Anything else will both threaten trust in the authorities and provide further fuel for ethnic and religious conflicts in an already severely tested country.
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Pakistan towards the breaking point – Statement
