At flood relief camps, life’s a struggle

Sana was pregnant when the floods hit her village. Her baby was born 10 days ago in her relief camp, and the unhygienic living conditions mean her newborn son is particularly vulnerable to disease. “He has had diarrhoea since the day he was born,” says Sana. “Maybe I will lose my son.”
Sana is one of the millions affected by severe flooding in lower districts of Sindh. Weeks of torrential monsoon rains have seen canals bursting their banks and flooding villages, leaving tens of thousands of families homeless for the past two months.
Independent medical humanitarian association – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or the Doctors Without Borders – has been providing basic healthcare to the displaced families living in camps and on the roadside. Although the rains have finally stopped and the water is starting to recede, thousands are still unable to return home. The MSF continues to work in the area, providing basic healthcare and monitoring the health of affected communities.
In a statement issued on Friday, the MSF said that Badin district is one of the worst-affected areas and in Tando Bago, an eastern sub-district of Badin, land on both sides of the elevated main roads is still under water even as two months have passed after the floods first struck.
Sana is a mother of two. Like many families in Badin, her house was totally destroyed by the floods. “The most valuable things we have now are cooking utensils,” she says. She and her family walked until they found a piece of land just high enough to escape the water. It soon became a camp for people displaced from their homes by the floods, with around 200 families from different villages living there.
The displaced people have used whatever materials they can find to build makeshift shelters, including branches, plastic sheeting and leaves. People in the camp have limited access to clean drinking water and food. “Since we arrived here, we have only received two food distributions, of two kilogrammes flour. I eat just two meals a day – chapatis and nothing else,” says Sana. Asked where she gets drinking water, Sana points to a pond of stagnant flood water not far from her tent. “This is where we fetch the water from.”
Following an independent assessment of health needs, MSF is running mobile clinics in camps for displaced people in Tando Bago sub-district, providing basic healthcare, free-of-charge, to people like Sana and her baby. The most common medical conditions are diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections, skin diseases, fever and malaria. The MSF team is also supporting staff in providing outpatient consultations at the Tando Bago Tehsil hospital. The MSF has provided jerry cans, soaps and bed nets to more than 750 displaced families, and has distributed 48,000 litres per day of clean drinking water in villages and camps for displaced people.
The situation has improved since the last week of September. “In Tando Bago, water has started receding and displaced families are going back home, though some remain in camps or living under tents on the roadside,” says Dr Erwin Lloyd Guillergan, MSF’s emergency team field coordinator. “We will continue our mobile clinics based on the needs in the camps. We will also keep monitoring the health situation, and explore the possibilities of providing safe water in the villages where the displaced people come from over the next few weeks. If there are any immediate, unmet health needs or the risk of diseases breaking out, as an emergency organisation, we will be ready to respond.”
Currently, the MSF has seven international staff and 23 Pakistani staff working in Badin on the emergency response in the wake of the floods.