The current wave of the torrential monsoon rains that started on Wednesday in different districts of lower Sindh and lasted for more than 50 hours wreaked havoc on standing crops, the infrastructure and residential areas in Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar and Thatta districts.
The report of these losses – prepared by the Association for Water, Applied Education and Renewable Energy (AWARE) in Tharparkar and the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) teams in Umerkot and along the coastal belt – revealed that crops including cotton, sugarcane, paddy, chilies, tomato and other vegetables on wide areas in these monsoon-hit districts, specially in Badin, have been completely ruined.
Breaches in the Left Bank Outfall Drain at different points caused more losses in wide areas of Badin and Mirpurkhas districts. Also, the rehabilitation of the affected families would need a long time and large sums of money. “The heavy rains caused enormous losses in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar and we are going to initiate relief operation in these districts for which we need relief goods including tents, food item, medicine, cereal and also motor pumps to dewater rainwater from monsoon-hit areas,” said Ali Akbar Rahimoon of AWARE.
He said that Kunri, one of the major chili markets in South Asia, Samaaro, Nabisar Road, Jhudo and some areas of Mithi are worst-hit areas where his organisation is initiating relief operation. He said that AWARE teams have started collecting data on the actual losses and the final report will be issued soon.
The PFF teams led by its chairman Mohammed Ali Shah on visiting different rain-hit areas observed poor response of the government to the situation. The government has only initiated a plan to provide food to around 30,000 people in the registered relief camps only, set up in towns. But hundreds are still stranded in the rain-affected areas. The breaches in drains have caused wide displacement in Badin and Mirpurkhas districts.
“The worst situation is in Badin, which received 400mm rain, and there are forecasts of more rains in the coming days. There is no camp management mechanism and government’s response could not be traced in the entire area,” said Shah. “Farmers, fishermen and herdsmen in particular faced massive problems… There is no government official to help these people, who are surviving on their own in makeshift camps outside their villages or sitting at canal banks,” he added.
PFF General Manager Hussain Jarwar said, “After heavy rains, irrigation department officials could not keep tabs on the changing situation and allowed canal water to flow in already rain-drenched areas. As people could not be reached in many areas therefore there is no accurate data of property and animal loss, but the loss has been disastrous so far.”
It was learnt that there are reports of house and property damage in Tando Mohammed Khan and Tando Allahyar where large cultivated area is still submerged. Hundreds of families continue to live in distant villages without proper food, clean water and medical facilities. Hence urgent need of food grows further but the ill response of the government adds to the plight of ailing families.
