It should not be a surprise. It happens every year, and is not something like Halley’s Comet, which last appeared in 1986, after last appearing in 1910, and which will not reappear until 2072. Very rare is the person who remembers seeing Halley’s Comet as a child, and who sees it a second time as an old timer. On the other hand, the monsoon arrives every year. However, it seems to take the authorities by surprise every year, much as if it was some surprise sprung on an unsuspecting desert. That the monsoon rains and floods killed as many as 11 people on Wednesday was bad enough, but the rains on Thursday morning killed another four. These deaths are not collateral damage, meant to be accepted as inevitable, leaving the administration as complacent as before.
One of the reasons for the deaths are entirely avoidable. Electrocutions should not happen, and a pre–monsoon safety check should reveal any wires that could cause electrocutions. Anyway, the very first thing WAPDA does is turn off the power when the rain starts, so that dome lives are saved, and the rest made miserable. Next to go is the water, ironic enough considering the superfluity of water. The condition of the sewers left much to be desired, as clearly thorough checking had not been done before the rain. As if these old complaints were not enough, this year saw the pre-rain windstorms tear off solar panels from roofs and cause damage, all over the country. Has the government evolved some way of inspecting the state of these panels? This is probably a smaller task than the inspection of all buildings to see whether they can sustain the rains.
The setting up of Disaster Management Authorities does not seem to have worked. Perhaps we should be thankful that they have not made matters worse. All the old arguments, like too many people moving to cities, thus straining existing infrastructure, the need for more money, wear thin in the face of people facing the rage of the waters. It is also not going to work, to wait out the problem, for global warming is going to stop the monsoon falling on this part of the world, with the result that the problems will be those of desertification, not the monsoon. However, the main problem is that the authorities must realize that while they may lord over the people for the rest of the year, for the monsoon they are expected to serve the people and meet their needs.
