De omfattende oversvømmelser i Pakistan i 2010 afslører landbefolkningens fattigdom og underernæring og viser, hvordan kyniske og feudale godsejere opfører sig, skriver IRINnews.
The floods that swept across vast tracts of land from July to September 2010 covered many fields, houses and roads in a sea of swirling water – but they also played a part in exposing the depth of existing poverty and deprivation in Pakistan.
– The malnutrition we are seeing is not new. It has nothing to do with the floods; it is just that we are seeing it now as people come into contact with medical teams, Shershah Syed, a gynaecologist who has devoted himself to caring for impoverished women requiring care during pregnancy and birth, told IRIN.
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Some of the ways in which powerful feudal families – in many cases linked to the political and bureaucratic elite – acted to protect their own interests at the cost of ordinary villagers have been well documented.
Feudal overlords have been accused, both in the southern Punjab and in Sindh Province of influencing decisions regarding the diversion of floodwater or the breach of over-flowing dams to protect their own land.
A judicial investigation continues into allegations that in other places protective dykes were breached by wealthy landowners to save their farms, while flooding those of impoverished – and powerless – villagers.
The more subtle ways in which Pakistan’s feudal system works against people, even in times when there is no natural disaster, are beginning to surface only now – in some cases as a result of surveys conducted to assess the plight of flood-affected people.
Vast estates belonging to feudal families stretch out across the country, sometimes covering hundreds of acres. According to the World Bank, about 2 percent of households control more than 45 percent of the total land area. Large farmers have also monopolized subsidies in water and agriculture – with the system in place contributing heavily to rural poverty, the Bank says.
