The breaches in the monsoon-swollen Left Bank Outfall Drain inundated a vast area in southern Sindh, including Badin district, and a large number of people lost everything, including standing crops, infrastructure and water supply schemes.
There are several villages just on the edges of the Arabian Sea – coastal villages – in the same district that lack basic facilities, including potable water, and the residents have been suffering due to poverty, even before being hit by any disasters.
But the monsoon floods of August 2011 have destroyed many coastal villages as well. Goth Malook Shah was one of these flood-hit villages in Badin district, where people lost everything, including their sources of drinking water.
After being hit with floods, the poor residents of this ill-fated remote village thought that it would take several years for them to rebuild their drinking water sources. But, out of the blue, a miracle came to pass.
One morning, residents of Malook Shah woke up to the sight of donkey carts, hand pumps and enormous iron jars.
Some non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers had appeared in their village from nowhere and started distributing these items among them. Some workers started constructing washing pads in their houses.
Despite being reported about in the international media, when the Pakistani government did nothing to help these people, the NGO workers were able to bring a smile on their sad faces.
Hanifan Bhatti, a 51-year-old peasant woman, was one of the surprised residents who had never imagined receiving gifts like silos for safe storage of wheat (which usually rots after a few months in the absence of a proper storage place), hand pumps for getting water, and a washing pad in her courtyard.
Since her childhood days, she remembers always walking miles every day with her mother to fetch potable water. When she was married, she brought the tradition with her along with the dowry.
When floods destroyed drinking water resources, she and other women residents had to walk long distances every morning to fetch water for their families.
The wife of a poor farmer Jan Mohammed Bhatti, she said, “It is enough for me to get these gifts. We used to cover long distances to fetch water from the neighbouring villages and now we would at least have water close to our doorstep.”
Being close to the rising sea level, underground water in the entire area has become contaminated, and women have to travel long distances once or twice a day to fetch water for domestic use.
Friends Development Organisation and Hamdam Foundation-Hyderabad, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Small Grants Programme (SGP), distributed donkey carts among 60 young men of 16 coastal villages in Badin district so that they could earn a livelihood, as well as hand pumps and silos among other items.
Hanifan, a mother of six, all illiterate, arrived at a ceremony held in the village located three kilometres away from the sea to receive her silos.
She is among 80 beneficiary women who have received silos for keeping their wheat and rice safe with combined water facilities.
Bakhtawar, wife of Misri Bhatti, is another beneficiary, who said water facility was their main demand to save time and money.
They used to face difficulties while travelling to neighbouring villages for fetching water, but these organisations have installed 30 hand pumps and 30 washing pads in their areas, which have sweet water.
Some people still do not believe that hand pumps would sustain for a long time. However, said Bakhtawar, the people feel happy at the moment to have water close to their doorstep.
Nathi Bheel, wife of Jumo, residing in Dharmu Bheel village, is a mother of eight children. Belonging to the marginalised community, she said she was enjoying the water, calling it a miracle, as nobody from the government ever offered them the precious gift of water.
UNDP/GEF/SGP National Coordinator Masood Lohar said they had introduced various small schemes to offer alternative sources of livelihood to the people.
“Beneficiaries among them are women and the youth. Uneducated young men have been donated donkey carts. Those with different levels of qualification have been imparted skill development trainings,” said Lohar.
Hamdam Foundation Coordinator Shokat A Soomro said these families had endured huge losses due to floods and they were living a vulnerable life without any better source of income.
“We have identified the deserving women and youth to support them so they might live a safer life at this difficult moment,” he added.
Being close to the Badin coast, the area has been affected by increasing sea intrusion, which has turned the underground water into saline water.
Once enjoying a prosperous life with cultivating fertile land, all these families are now living an unsafe life.
The organisations have developed water facilities on the demand of the local people. Silos are also valuable gifts for the families, which are susceptible to frequent disasters and displacement.
All the members of these low-income families work in the fields and earn little money, but since the floods have caused irreparable losses, they are now frightened.
These people have more to say about the life they spent 30 years ago, but they feel insecure now in terms of frequent disasters in the shape of floods, cyclones, high tides and, above all, water and food shortages.
Badin is said to have become the most vulnerable district due to artificial drains flowing from the area. Experts believe that Badin and Thatta districts are prone to disasters more than any other districts.
The recent floods have proven that the communities especially living close to the sea are the most vulnerable, as frequent disasters have wreaked havoc on their homes.
