HYDERABAD: The new monsoon spell, which started on September 4, 2020, has again hit around 400 coastal villages, located in Bahdamy and Dodo Soomro areas of Badin district, adding to the pains of already suffering families that are yet to receive flood relief.
Hundreds of villages are still under water due to rains and the breaches in the artificial drains. The poor dwellers have shifted to safer nearby places and are waiting for help.
Dhani Bux Mallah, a community activist, said, “Presently, most of the people in the affected areas of the district have been living along roadsides and embankments of canals and drains, facing difficulties due to lack of food”.
Mallah said heavy rains had destroyed all the standing crops like cotton, rice, chili, and tomatoes in the district. “Tomato is considered a precious crop for the coastal farmers, but it has been damaged badly,” he said, adding that it was another setback for farmers already facing financial crisis after the imposition of lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus pandemic.
Mallah, a member of a farmers network in the district, himself lost his abode in the recent rain.
He said after rains livestock farmers were looking panicked due to outbreak of diseases and infection in animals due to shortage of fodder and drinking stagnant rainwater.
The loss of around 248 goats has been reported by a rapid assessment, conducted by a network of development organisations at the district level. The government’s livestock department officials claim they were making efforts to vaccinate the animals, but the activists called it “too little, too late” as farmers have lost their assets.
Around 3,040 houses have reportedly been fully damaged in Badin district, forcing families to move out of houses, living along roadsides with their animals.
These villages, affected by the recent rains, are located on both sides of Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), which breached in different areas and destroyed standing crops, displacing the human population.
Abdul Ghaffar Khoso, Director Social Welfare Department and active member of district government network, said, “Around 1,200 families, just from Taluka Tando Bago and Taluka Golarchi in Badin, have been displaced because of floods and breaches in LBOD”. But, he said in Badin district more than 120,000 people had been affected badly.
“Hundreds of people are out of their abodes living under makeshift shelters and tents. Some of them are struggling to save their animals, the most precious assets, which may help these families recover losses again,” Khoso said.
Khamiso Ghirano, another community activist of Village Illyas Ghirano, Shah Karim Bulri taluka, Tando Muhammad Khan district said the area had received heavy rain again. “The displaced people are living uncertain lives due to government’s apathy and disinterest.” Ghirano said relief goods and tents had reached the affected people, but influential people were using their clout to favour their own people, ignoring the real victims of the disaster.
He said the rains and flood might impact badly on food security as most people had lost stock and fodder along with their homes.
“They are looking vulnerable at roadsides after losing each and everything due to the disaster.”
Ghirano said livestock farmers had taken their herds to mountainous areas of Thatta and Jamshoro districts for grazing, while some herders had also shifted their families along with the livestock to stay there for some days, as their houses were currently inundated.
“The farmers are also experiencing spread of diseases among livestock as well as humans due to stagnant water and shortage of food and fodder all around. No relief activities started, so far, to provide safe food to the affected families,” he added.
He said the rain had also destroyed a large number of private fish farms due to breaches in the dykes.
Heavy rainfall starting from August 15, 2020 flooded the urban as well as rural areas, triggering loss of economy for both.
Due to heavy rainfall, people have lost their properties, livestock and agriculture in 22 districts of the province. Provincial government has declared four divisions as calamity affected areas and started relief activities.
But, the reports reaching here reveal the people were still awaiting food and shelter for survival as millions were forced to live under the open sky and looking for humanitarian assistance.
Umerkot district has experienced huge loss in terms of agriculture and infrastructure as 11,340 houses are reportedly damaged. Like this, 8,974 houses have been damaged in Sanghar district, in which Khipro taluka has completely been destroyed, in terms of crops loss and displacement of families.
District governments have established relief camps in educational institutes and tent cities at different locations to facilitate the displaced, but the poor governance prevails and people are crying for food and tents.
Zoya Shaikh of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), working in three districts Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan and Hyderabad, claims to have witnessed the poor hygienic conditions in the flood-affected areas, which may result in outbreak of diseases.
“Hyderabad district has also experienced huge loss of agriculture,” Shaikh said.
The district is famous for producing vegetables, flowers, cotton, rice, maize and a variety of fruits.
She said the recent rains had further intensified the situation and created problems for the farmer families.
“There is a need to rehabilitate these families as they have lost their traditional source of income in a matter of days,” Shaikh said.
“Most of the people in the entire affected areas are originally sharecroppers and daily wage earning farmhand and after the imposition of lockdown, a majority of them, mostly women, were compelled to lose their only living.”
She said they again seemed vulnerable and needed support to survive. “Resilience mechanism, mostly for women entrepreneurs is the need of the hour so they may recover losses incurred by the natural disaster,” the SPO activist said.
These farmer women contribute more to feed their families by picking cotton and vegetables and packing and grading of the valuable products for the market and thus need organised support on immediate basis.