Who cares?

With the drought in Thar getting worse, reports of the death of infants through disease and malnutrition have continued to come in, with some indicating that over 400 infants have died this year in the district. There has been a spike in reports of infant deaths over the last three weeks, which corresponds to how the situation has been worsening. The region has received as little as 10mm in rainfall over the entire monsoon season, and only a miracle has prevented a full-fledged health crisis from developing. But one must also wonder at what point the government will be spurred to act seriously. Reports from Thar indicate that thousands of cattle have died from a lack of food and water supplies while populations facing the worst of the drought have been migrating en masse. Hundreds of dead children, thousands of dead animals and hundreds of migrating families – sounds serious enough to any observer. Unfortunately, apathy has remained the order of the day in Thar. No lives seem to matter in Thar. This has been true since the earliest reports of a drought in the region began to arrive almost a decade ago. If action had been taken then, we would no longer be witnessing the slow demise of the communities that inhabit Thar.

The first round of emergency relief aid has reached Thar, around 210,000 families set to be provided wheat bags. But wheat alone is not the solution to a crisis that extends from water supplies to crop production and the healthcare system. Any solutions to the drought-situation in Thar will need to be designed to handle all facets of social life in the region. What cannot go on is shifting the blame on to the people of Thar. Only recently, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho blamed mothers in Thar for the deaths of infants. This should alone be enough to disqualify her from her post, and is a good example of the kind of apathy there is towards those suffering from almost a decade of drought in Thar. How can those suffering from a decade-long drought be blamed for death and the devastation of social and economic life? The blame squarely lies with the provincial and federal governments, who have failed to perform their job. The newly-elected PTI-led federal government has begun to point fingers at the PPP-led Sindh government, but one must ask why the matter does not come up in meetings of the Council of Common Interest. The reason is simple: no one really cares.