WATCH: When Nowshera’s elders failed, they turned to a woman for help

When the residents of Nowshera paid no heed to the announcements from the mosques and urging from the area’s elders - who usually hold sway over most life matters in Pakistan’s conservative areas - they had to do what would normally be thought as unthinkable - turn to a woman for help.

Last week, the disaster authorities sounded an alarm for a flood brewing in the Swat River as it came down from the mountains. Fast melting glaciers, together with unusual and incessant rains, meant that the volume of water, together with its destructive capacities, had grown multifold.

Nowshera lies just before the confluence of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Punjab at Attock.

What mattered was the volume and force of the raging rapids in the river.

The protective wall can withstand around 240,000 cusecs. But when the flood came, the water flowed at a rate of around 370,000 cusecs. So the walls did not stand a chance.

Wazir says this year, they had prepared well for the floods, which helped minimize human losses.

Pakistan’s mountainous north has seen rapid population growth. And the absence of flat land means that land along the river is often the most coveted and densely constructed. It is also because most roads are constructed along the rivers in lower-lying areas.

The floods meant that most of these areas and the people living there were directly in the path of the flood and at the highest risk.

But when announcements from local mosques - the most common way to make emergency announcements in Pakistan, failed to yield the desired result, concerned residents of the village turned to Nowshera’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Quratulain Wazir.

When she heard that no one was taking the announcement seriously, the ADC decided to take up the matter personally.

Already involved in flood prevention operations, she went to the Amangarh village and made announcements in mosques.

When that failed to stir the residents, she picked up a cane and started knocking on every door in the village and directed the people to vacate their homes immediately.

Ultimately, around 25,000 people were evacuated and sent to relief camps.

When the floods came raging through the valley, it was all but deserted.

Focus on flood relief

But there is no time for Wazir to sit and take a breath.

Having evacuated thousands, she now feels responsible for caring for them as people cram into temporary shelters and tents.

As per reports, different items are needed, such as tents, blankets, pillows, food, clothes etc., she said.

“We have kept ourselves emotionally strong against this disaster, and that keeps the hope alive,” the ADC said.

She said that an emergency meeting is held every year at the start of the monsoon season, and they are directed to make contingency plans at the tehsil level.

“Our plans for the tehsil level were ready, which included steps by step instructions on what should be done, what functions will each department play, how transport will be arranged, how road blockage will be cleared and where stand-by machinery will be set up,” she said.