by Gabriela Carranza, Staff Writer
You know the feeling of jealousy when you hear some of your classmates talk about where they are going over the summer? You listen to places like Florida, California, and even Mexico, but how often have you heard your classmates talk about visiting Pakistan to visit family they haven’t seen in years?
For Aliah, this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary; she’s visited her family in Pakistan several times throughout her life. For Aliah seeing her family is very important to her because it costs so much to fly her family there and back, so they don’t go very often.
Aliah was in Pakistan when the flooding initially began.
Where her family lives isn’t exactly around the catastrophic damage, but she did have her worries. Because it was monsoon season, there was a lot of rain, and because of all that rain, they experienced flash floods: “the worst of it while I was there was the end of July, the roads were completely flooded. And the water would be up to your knees in certain areas. Flooding was so terrible that roads became rivers and the rivers quickly overflowed. The power would go out for 6-8 hours a day.
“It was like this for about a week,” Aliah noted. The thing is, Aliah is more concerned than worried: “It’s really upsetting that so many people in Pakistan are suffering from these floods, but the government isn’t doing anything to help.”
Aliah’s main concern is the lack of help from the government, as well as the abuse of power being common in their politicians. Aliah says rich politicians use their money to build dams around their land, causing many other citizens to lose everything they own. As a result, everything is eventually washed away by the water; their whole lives lost to the overwhelming amounts of water. These devastations only confirm the way the government isn’t helping its people– thousands dead and injured, millions displaced.
Just because Pakistan is a third world country doesn’t mean it should go to the deep end; there’s media coverage but not enough to help. “I just hope that people notice what’s happening and decide to help and make shelters for the people that have lost their homes,” Aliah said.