The two month-long downpour and ferocious floods caused by several breaches in faultily designed drain such as Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) funded by the World Bank, interalia, have left scores of people helpless, homeless and hungry in the twenty one districts in upper and lower parts of Sindh.
So far more than eight hundred people have been reported dead due to hunger, thirst and water-borne diseases. The death toll may be higher because there are several badly affected areas to which there is no access. Millions of human lives and livestock are at stake because with every passing day the situation seems getting the worst.
More than two months have passed but even then, tens of thousands of ill-fated people are still stranded in deep waters and those who have been evacuated are passing their sleepless days and nights under the open sky in starvation and semi-starvation along the banks of roads, canals, drains and at promontory points.
Since the downpour and its destruction have devastated each and everything including the rural economy which consists of agriculture and livestock, infrastructure and human resources, therefore, it has bolstered unemployment, among many other socioeconomic ills and evils in the worst affected areas. The youth of the province bears the brunt, among others. The youth is in a state of unemployment and in a state of helplessness.
Several international relief organisations are already in the field – providing relief and rehabilitation services in the last year’s affected areas and others are about to launch their relief operations in the recently affected areas in the upper and lower parts of the province.
It is an established truth that the relief organisations and donor agencies which hired local talent during last year’s operations; they stand out for their commendable services.
On the contrary, the organisations which hired the office and field staff from other parts of the country and stationed them in Sukkur, Hyderabad and other big cities in Sindh province, who neither know the local language and its various dialects nor geography and do not even, know about the Sindhi society and psychology of the victims, they could not come up to the expectations.
The simple truth is that the local talent is equipped with the necessary education, skills and experience to deal with this situation. Above all, they more devoted and dedicated towards their own displaced, disturbed, destroyed and shattered people.
I would like to request the top management of the international relief organisations to hire the local talent from the province for expeditious, effective and efficient rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities.
HASHIM ABRO
Islamabad
