and potable water.
Khan Shoro, an old man taking care of his two buffalos on a roadside, said, “We could not take our belongings with us, because the water entered our houses unexpectedly during night time while people were still building the embankment for safeguarding Budhapur town.”
He narrates how people had no time to take much to safety. “We took animals and children hurriedly to safety. We waded through high waters for a few kilometres to reach higher grounds. In all this, I lost wheat straw fodder worth Rs30,000 and now have to buy it for Rs400-500 per mound from a local shop,” he said.
Shoro told The News how those who chose to stay around for the waters to recede lost their animals. “It was a big loss to the herders, who lost not only their traditional assets but had already lost their alternate sources of living,” he said.
The communities of this area of Jamshoro district were traditionally known after the Unarpur Forest, which was thick and provided the sources of living to the local families. But now, unfortunately, the forest has depleted and people depend on cultivating family lands or rearing livestock. Unarpur, the major town is a business centre for more than one hundred small villages, located in the river’s catchment area.
Despite the fact that the river carrying high flood flowed between the two embankments and there was no incident of breaches reported throughout its flow, the catchment area came under the water wrecking havoc on all the farmer and herder families. Water flowed all its way to reach the Indus Delta, creating chaos in the 2.2 million acres of catchment areas. There were an estimated 1.5 million people residing in the catchment areas from Kashmor to Thatta and Sujawal.
Since Jamshoro district is located on both sides of the Indus, it faced displacement and destruction of the riverine communities.
According to the data collected by Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh, they have evacuated 995,030 persons with 644,097 livestock from 3,203 villages of all the 15 districts of Sindh that are affected by the flood.
Some people who had left their animals behind now have sick animals on their hands and are demanding the government to conduct a vaccination campaign.
A farmer, Bacho Zardari of village Sono Zardari near Budhapur Town demanded nothing from the government but vaccinations for his buffalos, which are inflicted with viral infections. The animals are diseased and are not eating fodder, which further compounds the problems of the community due to their reliance on milk and other products from the animals.
Though Bacho does not know what afflicts the buffaloes, he said they cannot be milked for fear of carrying transferable diseases.
As the families trickle back to their abodes, many remain stranded due to high flood waters. Rescue and relief efforts also seem to be slow, and on self help basis, people are trying to find whatever sustenance they can. Some are trying to catch some fish from the stagnant waters.
In this difficult time, many people are selling their smaller animals to meet the needs of food and ration for human and fodder for their animals.
Faiz Zardari of the same locality, said, “We cannot understand why water from many hand pumps has turned saline. Though we are living close to the river bed, the taste of the underground water has changed.”