Twenty-one upper and lower Sindh districts are still reeling from the ravages of rainfall and floods. The water has not been drained out from these areas. As a result, the ill-fated victims are living in, on and with the rainwater of last year’s ‘super flood’ and this year’s rainfall. This stagnating water has created the worst health and hygiene problems. It has given rise to an epidemic in different districts.
One can witness the victims draining out the rainwater on their own in various areas. But the water is in an enormous volume and cannot be drained by these people on their own. It needs to be drained out by using proper machinery and through a coordinated and concerted effort. A faulty drainage system which causes severe water logging has also aggravated the situation in many districts.
Now the chilly winter has set in and it is giving a hard time to the victims. The victims neither have proper winter clothes nor proper tents to save them from the very cold southerly winds. Many people have reported to have died due to the onset of winter and a lack of fulfilment of their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.
With the exception of a few, more or less all the international and national relief organisations are wasting their resources over non-productive activities such as seminar and workshops in splendid hotels and they are doing nothing practical to alleviate the miseries of the victims. Let’s not leave these victims in a lurch and do something practical. Our rulers must do something to drain out the rain and flood water from the said areas and save the people and fertile soil of Sindh.
HASHIM ABRO
Islamabad
