When I walked through farmland in Pakistan this spring, there were two constants: persistent clouds of dust and the often-repeated worry among farmers about the depleting water supply. With low water reserves and scarce amounts of rain, Pakistan’s farmers appeared to be looking down the barrel of a long drought.
Three months later, Pakistan is instead enduring the worst floods the region has ever seen, with torrential downpours wiping out roads, bridges, farms, even whole towns. The floods have also displaced millions, leaving Pakistan with unprecedented relief needs— the U.N. has estimated that Pakistan will need more than $460 million for over 14 million people who have been hit by the floods—that Pakistan’s government has in some cases been too slow or unable to meet.
With government aid slow to arrive or unable to make it to some of the country’s remote areas, there is growing concern that extremist groups will gain public influence by providing aid where the government has not.
As these historically destructive floods sweep through the country, the situation in Pakistan is growing increasingly desperate. With government aid slow to arrive or unable to make it to some remote areas, there is growing concern that extremist groups will gain public influence by providing aid where the government has not.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah—a branch of banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, thought to be responsible for orchestrating the attacks on Mumbai in 2008—has been especially active, telling the AFP that they had provided relief, in the form of food, medicine, tents, and cash, to more than 250,000 people so far.
The involvement of extremist groups didn’t begin with flood relief. In fact, extremist groups in Pakistan have in recent years focused on water—a scarce but vital resource that is one of the most contentious political issues in South Asia.
It’s a problem that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari himself acknowledged in an editorial in The Washington Post last year, bluntly stating that failing to resolve Pakistan’s water crisis, “could fuel the fires of discontent that lead to extremism and terrorism.” And it’s a theory that has played out in practice with Jamaat-ud-Dawah.
Since the floods began, Jamaat-ud-Dawah has been active in distributing aid in some of the areas where government aid has yet to reach. But, in the years prior, the group had already gained traction among Pakistan’s farmers, smarting under water shortages, by accusing India of stealing or diverting water on its way to Pakistan, saying, according to the newspaper Dawn, “only jihad can help get water released to Pakistan, so people should rise up.”
With extremist groups doubling down on water issues, it seems increasingly important that foreign aid for Pakistan’s flood victims be looked at not just in immediate terms but as a long-term problem.
The U.S. government has already pledged to funnel $55 million in aid to the flood victims, with more than $10 million of that going specifically for food aid. The promise so rankled the Taliban they issued a statement insisting that Pakistan should reject all foreign aid. In return for such a rejection (and a promise of amnesty for Taliban members), the extremists offered $20 million.
Even before the floods first hit, Pakistan’s water-management system was badly broken. Dams, reservoirs, and canals meant to store and distribute water were already in a state of disrepair, and are now badly damaged. Huge numbers of crops, already weakened from the drought, have now been swept away. Clean, drinkable water was already scarce and is likely to remain so for a time. Meanwhile, contaminated water poses what could become a major public-health disaster.
With extremist groups putting more of their focus on water, the long-term solution to minimizing their influence in the region may be to direct aid not just into immediate relief but into fixing Pakistan’s water system as well.
Ria Misra is a writer based in Washington, D.C. Her recent work has also appeared on PBS, NPR, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and AOL's Politics Daily. She recently returned from Pakistan where she was reporting on the water crisis.
