Chamber vice-president witnesses devastating impact of floods during Pakistan trips

Nasir Awan is recalling emotional phone calls to his wife as he struggled to describe 'haunting memories ' of devastating flooding in Pakistan which killed nearly 3,000 people and left eight million turfed out of their homes, writes Jon Griffin.

“I would phone my wife and she would say 'how was your day ' and I would burst into tears. It was very emotionally draining.

“I saw two or three families sharing a tent with little access to clean drinking water. I saw some children aged six with no shoes, very little clothing on their backs living in very unhygienic conditions.

“I have grandchildren of that age and I could see my own grandchildren in their faces. It really upset me. These are people 's children and grandchildren and they clearly have no future - they are just relying on aid. ”

Nasir, the President-elect of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, jetted out to his homeland for two emotionally-charged visits last November and in February to view at first hand the terrible aftermath of monsoons which left a third of the country underwater, killing nearly 3,000, including more than 640 children.

As chair of Islamic Relief Pakistan, one of 40 overseas arms of the Birmingham-based aid charity, Nasir was able to see the attempts to help families left with little more than their clothes after torrential downpours last June turned daily existence into a living nightmare for around 33 million people.

“Something like eight or nine months of rain fell in a matter of hours. The UN described it as a climate catastrophe. The floods happened at the peak of summer. It was unprecedented. This was an extended monsoon that had never happened before.

“The waters were of such force, a lot of houses made of coarse materials like mud and clay were just washed away.

“The vast majority of people affected managed to escape but went, just with their clothes on their backs, to higher ground. But they were out in the open, at the mercy of the elements. They were facing extreme temperatures of 50 degrees and the water was not drinkable.

“The people had food and water shortages and shelter shortages. The people in the areas affected would grow their own food so they would never have issues with food. But all the crops were washed away and many of the fields were still underwater, so they couldn 't grow anything.

“They were just relying on food parcels delivered by aid agencies, such as Islamic Relief. The Army were dropping food parcels and clean water to them by helicopter because some areas were not accessible. They are still waiting for handouts or charity organisations to give them food. ”

Over the course of his autumn and winter tours of Pakistan, Nasir first visited the worst flood-hit regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north of the country in November before returning to the Middle East state in February to view the flood-hit regions of Balochistan and Sindh in the south, paying on both occasions out of his own pocket.

“I was there for 10 days in February and went to the southern areas of Balochistan and Sindh. In Balochistan the waters had receded - it is normally a very, dry, rugged desert area. People are having to rebuild their lives, all the harvesting and crops have been set back by a year.

“These poor people, especially when they have daughters, from a very young age, they start to save up for their weddings, they collect clothes or jewellery, and it can take 15 to 20 years. They will be collecting clothes, pots and pans, money. All those were washed away from most of the families. ”

Nasir said 13,000 kilometres of roads had also been washed away and 400 bridges damaged in the worst-hit areas. “The people are now living in fear that it could happen again. These are resilient people, they have survived in extreme areas but because of poverty they cannot move into cities.

“They are living in desert areas with very limited resources, often living in one room. They sleep outside under the sky in the summer and in the winter sleep in one room�I had to travel eight or nine hours by car to reach some of those areas. ”

The Birmingham businessman, whose father Bashir emigrated to Birmingham from Pakistan in 1961 to build a better life for his family of six children before establishing wholesalers Awan Marketing in 1976, eventually left Pakistan to spend three days in the Turkish earthquake zone before returning to the UK.

“Islamic Relief were also on the ground there. They were giving out as much as they could, tents, food, clothes and blankets. Seeing the children, it was cold, there was snow on the ground, they had very little clothing, they were shivering, everything had just disappeared in a matter of hours. Parents were looking on very helplessly.

“I came back with haunting memories. You realise how vulnerable we are, how life can change in a matter of minutes. You go to sleep, planning for the next day. In a matter of minutes all those plans were shattered, with no hope for the future. Possessions and property can be rebuilt but you can never rebuild, or regain, your family. ”

He said the contrast between the nightmare scenes in Pakistan and Turkey and the West was stark. “We live in a comfortable environment. If it gets too cold we can turn the heating up or put on extra clothes, if it gets too wet we don 't really feel it because we have a drainage system, if it gets too hot, we can put fans on. ”

Nasir, who was awarded an MBE for services to business and international trade in 2016, is planning to return to Pakistan in the autumn - and meanwhile is calling for concerted action on climate change in the wake of the floods.

“If you think about the changes in climate and temperatures where you don 't have the facilities to make yourself comfortable or to cope with those drastic changes, these are real people affected and it is only then you realise the effect of climate change�you have got extreme weather all over the world.

“I came away with memories of seeing how helpless I am, or we are, as individuals. We cannot alleviate or help so many. At the same time we should not give up - if you can help a few, it is better than not helping any. ”