Waiting For Dry Ground

Asem Mustafa Awan

Islamabad: The smiles are the first thing one notices. Nine children, all barely old enough to understand the meaning of disaster, sit crowded on a single charpoy surrounded by muddy floodwater. For a fleeting moment, they appear carefree. But beyond those smiles lies a reality no child should inherit.

The charpoy has become their island. Their home has disappeared beneath the water. Around them stand makeshift shelters that can no longer shelter anyone. Their possessions, perhaps all they owned, can be packed onto a donkey cart when the water recedes, only to be carried elsewhere until the next flood forces another journey.

For families living on the margins, disasters do not begin with heavy rain. They begin long before the first cloud appears. Poverty, fragile housing, inadequate drainage and limited access to healthcare leave them exposed long before nature delivers its first blow.

These children are among the first to suffer and often the last to recover. Floodwater rarely arrives alone. It is followed by contaminated drinking water, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, dengue, skin infections and malnutrition. For children whose bodies are already weakened by poverty, every outbreak becomes another struggle for survival.

Millions across Pakistan have experienced repeated displacement over recent years. Some families have rebuilt. Many have simply moved from one temporary settlement to another, carrying little more than memories of the homes they once had.

The picture also raises a painful question. Why do those with the least lose the most every time disaster strikes?

The children sitting on that charpoy did not choose where they were born. They did not choose to live in flood-prone settlements. Yet they will bear the heaviest burden of a crisis they played no part in creating.

One little boy has stepped into the water while the others remain seated together. It is a small moment, yet it symbolises the uncertain road ahead. Every step through floodwater is also a step through risk.

Monsoon has only begun. Weather warnings suggest that many more communities could face similar hardships in the days ahead. Relief will arrive for some. For others, survival will depend on resilience that no child should ever have to possess.

These children do not need sympathy. They need what every child deserves: a safe home, clean water, protection from disease and the chance to grow up without every rainy season becoming a fight for survival.

Photo Credit: APP