Lahore:
Despite the official insurance of a gentle rescue operation, a dark reality hides in the districts struck by the floods of Punjab, where health problems increase given the epidemic of diseases related to floods.
While provincial authorities highlight rescue figures and medical camps, soil evidence shows submerged health units, a shortage of drugs and citizens left for themselves in the waters of the disease.
Doctors and humanitarian workers say that patients with diarrhea, skin infections and dengue are often waiting for hours, sometimes days, for appropriate treatment. In some camps, antimalarial vaccines and rabies vaccines would have exhausted, which leaves vulnerable residents.
“We are dealing with dozens of patients in tents without enough supplies. Official accounts do not correspond to the situation here,” a health worker in Narowal, asking for anonymity.
The floods have continued since the end of August moved more than two million people to Punjab, overwhelmed 2,000 villages and swept away vast agricultural land. Thousands of acres of rice, cotton and sugar cane have been destroyed, further aggravating food insecurity.
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The provincial government claims to have rescued nearly 1.9 million people, installed more than 1,000 rescue camps and deployed mobile health units. But the reports of the field indicate that many villages remain cut, with rescue measures reaching them only sporadically.
In Hafizabad and Kasur, the inhabitants complain that they have received no coherent food in drinking water or medical aid.
Health files show that more than 15,400 cases of dengue, diarrhea, malaria and skin diseases were detected in Punjab in the last month.
Lahore alone reported more than 9,000 patients in the last 24 hours. According to the Punjab health department, since January, the province has recorded 310 cases of dengue, including 79 in Lahore. The crisis extends beyond the diseases transmitted by the vectors – 99 snake jaws and 167 cases of dog cock have also been reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the “serious risks” of epidemic epidemics, highlighting the urgent need for drinking water, sanitation and an uninterrupted medication supply. Aid groups confirm that conditions in several camps remain unhealthy, with stagnant water farming mosquitoes and increasing the probability of cholera and dysentery.
Find out more: The worst monsoon floods in decades leave millions of people displaced in Pakistan
However, the Minister of Health of Punjab, Khawaja Imran Nazir, insists that the government is prepared. He said the medical teams were on 24 hours a day, the “wheel clinics” work and that all districts were invited to store emergency medicines. Head Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif personally supervises rescue operations, with army units mobilized in several districts, the provincial government said.
Critics argue that the answer remains more reactive than preventive. “The state knew that heavy rains were coming, but the defenses of floods and public health systems were not reinforced over time,” an environmental analyst in Lahore told. “Now we look at the avoidable diseases to spread while the officials are jostling for control of damage.”
Experts also indicate climate change as an aggravation factor. Punjab received 26% more precipitation this monsoon season compared to last year, according to the meteorological department, exhibiting weaknesses in infrastructure and planning.
While waters stagnate and health problems prevail, the question is whether emergency operations can follow the extent of the crisis. For the moment, those responsible promise that no patient will remain untreated “, but the testimonies of survivors of the flood zones through the Punjab tell a much more disturbing story of a public health disaster brewing under the surface.
