[DAWN] AS reports pour in of the havoc wrought by this season's flood -- of lives lost, property washed away, livestock drowned, crops damaged and infrastructure destroyed -- unbearable is the feeling that this is less due to nature's wrath than human folly. Much of the misery caused to the people could have been avoided.This despite the fact that some significant steps have been taken over the past few decades to improve the country's disaster management capacity. Gone are the days when disasters were addressed by a tiny desk in the Cabinet Division and all that was required was waiving of land revenue/irrigation charges for the affected farmers.
Now we have disaster management authorities at the centre and in the provinces. The defence forces, the army in particular, are still largely responsible for rescuing the marooned people. But one notices that Rescue 1122 is also quite active -- to the extent its resources permit -- though one misses the civil defence and municipal rescue services that used to be active up to the 1960s.