Recent floods and rain in district Badin of Sindh has resulted in the scarcity of safe drinking water and food while food items are being sold at high prices, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
Badin is one of the calamity-hit areas where relief camps are unable to provide the basic items to the affected people. Relief camps have been set up in all five tehsils of the district where affectees are forced to live under the sky without proper availability of food and drinking water.
On the other hand, the prices of the food items have been raised following a sharp increase in the demand. Wheat flour has reached to Rs1,250 per 40 kilograms from Rs1,150 while sugar is being sold at Rs80 instead of Rs68 and milk Rs60.
Prices of other necessary food items such as vegetables, fruits and meat have also been increased up to 20 percent. Also, the breaches in drains and canals have not been filled yet. Children’s charity Plan International says up to 300,000 people in Badin district have been left homeless by flooding.
The most vulnerable are being evacuated after one foot of water swamped their homes. “Our specialist disaster response teams are on the ground in Sindh province where thousands of people are in need of food, shelter and safe drinking water,” says Haider Yaqub, Plan’s Country Director in Pakistan.
“More rain is forecast in the next few days and there are fears the problems will escalate.” Sindh province was one of the worst hit by last year’s devastating floods with 7.5 million people affected. In response to this latest disaster, the government has set up temporary relief camps in 43 high schools.
However, they are only housing 20 per cent of the people displaced. “Some families are also taking shelter in primary schools and health centres,” Yaqub said. “The majority are stranded on the roadside as they’ve been unable to reach the camps,” he said. Heavy rains are taking a toll across South Asia.
