‘The worst is yet to come’ (From The Northern Echo)

‘The worst is yet to come’

10:09am Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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The floods in Pakistan are subsiding, but the country faces a long road back to normality. Jim Entwistle speaks to a Darlington man who has first-hand experience of life amid the rising waters.

FROM his home in Darlington, Dr Abdul Jaleel watches the televised images of Pakistan’s devastating floods with particular interest. The place on the screen, under a lake of water that stretches down the spine of the entire country, is Dr Jaleel’s homeland.

“It brings back all those awesome memories,”

he says. “The stench of the stagnant water, the lack of everything – fresh water and food, and the helplessness of the people in getting medical treatment or financial help.

“There are memories which will never leave me.”

The floods hit in early August, when persistent monsoon rains turned savage. In some places, as much as ten inches fell in 24 hours.

According to the World Health Organisation, which is co-ordinating the relief effort, 15 million people have been affected. Six million of those have required life-saving assistance.

More than 2,000 are dead. But with disease taking hold, and the country’s infrastructure in tatters, the number of deaths will rise.

For Dr Jaleel, a retired NHS consultant, these figures are not just digits on a page, they evoke memories of the sights and smells, and the inherent fears, of growing up on the banks of the mighty Jhelum river in Punjab, Pakistan.

“My brother in Pakistan says nothing like this has happened in his life. The hospitals and the schools and the streets are gone, everything is gone,” he says.

Geographically and culturally, water runs through the heart of Punjab. Translated as “five waters”, Punjab is a lush, fertile province, fed by the rivers Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Beas and Jhelum, the biggest. The rivers water the region’s vast rice, fruit and sugar cane plantations, which drive the economy of Pakistan.

But once a year, from July to September, as the threat of the rains grows, the locals keep a keen eye trained on the darkening skies.

Flooding was not uncommon in his youth, says Dr Jaleel, and it always came as a surprise.

“We would be coming home from school, the clouds would thunder and the buckets of rain would pour down. As a child we would enjoy it, and wanted to stay out, but my parents were extremely concerned.

“They would warn us of the snakes which lived in the holes in the street. When the rain went in to the holes, the snakes would come out, they said. But all we cared about was splashing around in the water, playing around, it was for the parents to worry.”

Dr Jaleel moved to the UK in 1962 to complete his medical training and get a job within the NHS. Despite initially failing to make his mark – he had his first 45 job applications turned down – he went on to become a member of the central consultant committee of the British Medical Association, and the chairman of Hospital Doctors in the North-East.

His medical expertise, and his paternal instincts, have since taught him that his parents were right when it came to the dangers of playing in the floodwaters.

“The rain would come from the darkness, totally sudden, an almost abrupt downpour which would go on and on and on for several days,” he recalls.

“When it goes on for seven, nine, or 11 days, as it sometimes does, you start thinking what the hell is going on? Everything comes to a halt. Shops, schools and hospitals close.

“During the Second World War we were on rations, but you couldn’t get your rations because the shops were shut. The wagons hadn’t got through and we didn’t have food, water or milk.”

Although the flooding at its height causes devastation and disruption, the main problems start when the waters recede and the scale of the devastation becomes more apparent, as is happening now.

“The whole town, the streets and the fields will be full of mud,” says Dr Jaleel.

‘BROKEN woodwork and housing lie in the roads. The first thing you notice is you can’t get anywhere. And then the disease starts. The diseases are largely waterborne, such as cholera and malaria.

You also see skin and chest diseases, and above all, malnutrition.

“There is no food and no clean water, so naturally you lose weight, and then you become weak and prone to infections. It is at this stage when most of the deaths occur, mainly among children, pregnant women and the ill.”

However frightening Dr Jaleel’s experiences may sound, he is keen to acknowledge that they pale into insignificance when compared to the ongoing crisis in Pakistan.

But he praised the “magnanimous” response of the British public.

“Within one week, the British public had donated £19m, within three weeks it went up to £40m,” he says. “No other nation has shown such generosity and altruism.

“This is noticeably striking as we are going through hard financial times. I am full of admiration for this generosity which is embedded in the British psyche.”

■ Christian Aid is one of 13 agencies working under the umbrella of the Disasters Emergency Committee to provide food, shelter and medical attention to 230,000 people affected by the floods in Pakistan. To help, call 08080-004-004 or visit christianaid.org.uk