A FEW weeks ago, along the Multan Sukkur M5 motorway, some 35 kilometres from Jalalpur Pirwala, families squatted on the roadside under the blazing sun while the floodwaters lay right beneath. Their belongings were stacked up under their charpoys while chickens fluttered in tiny cages, the only livestock they had managed to rescue.

Most of the people living alongside the motorway from Multan to Jalapur Pirwali and Alipur are small farmers or their main source of income comes from livestock. But during this disaster, many lost their livestock and thereby their only source of income.

The Sutlej inundated hundreds of homes at the Noraja Bhutta embankment and damaged the motorway, thereby cutting off Jalalpur Pirwala from Multan. Weeks later, the situation for most of these flood survivors is no different; many are still camping on nearby roads waiting for the water to subside.

Around a couple of weeks ago, the Punjab government announced that the rescue and relief work had concluded. But there was not much relief or rescue work to begin with. When the Sutlej swelled and water came rushing into homes in the villages of Chak No. 67M and 68M at midnight, the locals were taken by surprise. They were given no warning by the local administration and so they ran for cover, grabbing whatever they could take along.

Electricity had been cut off days before the floodwaters came, and so phone batteries were too low to call Rescue 1122, leaving people with no choice but to help themselves. The rescue boats promised by the Punjab government never arrived and so people had to be creative in their rescue efforts. One man strung together plastic bottles to make a float on which he mounted his belongings and then swam through snake-infested water to dry ground. Another found a large karahi and carried his child in it to the dry part of the M5 motorway.

Those in the Alipur area of Sitpur who managed to call Rescue 1122 were told that they would have to wait their turn as they were now part of a long queue of people waiting to be rescued. Some people complained that days went by but their turn never came. Others paid exorbitant amounts to private boat operators to rescue their families and livestock.

In some cases, boats were available but could not rescue families wading through floodwaters nearby because the assigned official was absent. Some NGOs run by religious entities arranged boats and haphazardly picked up families caught in the floodwaters. Local politicians were seen rescuing people, too, but despite their best efforts, they could not effectively carry out a relief operation during a disaster of that scale. And this is the issue — a climate disaster that has overwhelmed the local and provincial administration.

The tent villages or flood relief centres were overcrowded. In Alipur city, a government high school, which had been converted into a camp, had a capacity of 2,000 people but 3,000 were staying there. There were just nine toilets serving these 3,000 people and water would often run out. Those flood survivors who had chosen to stay with their relatives would often come to the camps to eat their meals, and so there was never enough food to go around.

In a government camp in Jalalpur Pirwala, 35 pregnant women were being treated by a midwife. But they complained of headaches and were worried about the uncertain future their babies would be born into. Doctors provided by the Pakistan Navy claimed that people had developed skin diseases, mostly fungal infections, and diarrhoea. However, there were not enough medicines, while the number of patients kept multiplying each day.

Had there been a local government in place, the task of rescuing people would have been much easier.

Now most of the flood relief centres have been shut down and the government has forced people to return to their homes, while a few areas in the Sitpur region of Alipur and the Khan Bela area of Jalalpur Pirwala are still underwater.

The Punjab government is in the process of collecting data on the damage caused by the floods in 27 districts. A joint survey team comprising personnel from the army, the district administration and various other departments has been sent out. But it is a case of too little too late. Help did not come when it was most needed and the flood relief camps failed to provide shelter and food to those who required it.

Had there been a local government (LG) in place, the task of rescuing people would have been much easier. Local politicians would have been better equipped to understand and assess the needs of their areas and would have worked harder to rescue people than the babus or the military who, confused by the local dynamics, lost precious time waiting for orders.

There can be no alternative to a local body government where the true representatives of the people are available to help, especially in times of disaster. They have a stake in the system and rely on the people for votes and therefore are motivated to perform. The PTI and PML-N have repeatedly denied the 120 million people of Punjab a local government. The last LG elections were held in 2015 and the elected bodies completed their tenure in December 2021, after which the provincial government introduced a new LG law, but fresh elections have been repeatedly delayed.

The Punjab government must show maturity, and instead of bickering with the PPP, focus on developing a strong LG system to cater to the many needs of a growing population. Good governance is intrinsically linked to democracy, with its roots reaching the people, and it cannot be realised without a local government in place.

The writer is a broadcast journalist and anchorperson.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2025