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Pakistan After the Deluge

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27/12/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Pakistan After the Deluge

Lyse Doucet visits Pakistan to find out how it is coping after July's devastating floods.

This summer's floods were the worst natural disaster ever to hit Pakistan. Lyse Doucet travels across the country to assess the long-term consequences for this pivotal state.

The floods of the summer of 2010 were the worst natural disaster ever to hit Pakistan. The media may have moved on, but the country cannot. Now Lyse Doucet travels across Pakistan to assess the long-term consequences for this pivotal state. 

These floods devastated every level of society, washing away the foodstores of ordinary citizens and destroying the offices of local administrators. Without phones or computers, one local officer says he needs a magic wand to put everything back in order. People are waiting for the most basic food and shelter, but as one official told Lyse, there are not enough tents in the world to house all the people who have lost their homes. And now winter is coming. Lyse travels north and discovers a situation near chaos as people struggle to get the money designated by the Pakistani government to help them rebuild their lives. Islamabad says its cash card scheme is successful, but the majority of flood victims have not been able to process their claims. 

Lyse then goes south to Sindh, where much of the land is still covered in water, and meets local politician Imran Leghari from the governing Pakistan People's Party. Will he lose the vote in the next election as he cannot meet his constituents' needs? Lyse sees local people mobbing aid lorries, a sign of their increasing desperation.

In the east, in Punjab, Lyse meets people who say they would rather be governed by Saudi Arabia or China. And contrary to expectations from the west that extremists might take advantage of the chaos to radicalise flood victims, she meets former jihadi Latif Ansari, who is now advocating gentle social revolution against the control of feudal landlords. 

Producers: Kirsten Lass and Mark Lobel.

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