Cyclone Vayu whacks vulnerable islanders as it makes a weak landfall in Sindh

HYDERABAD: More than 6000 people, residing in 25 isolated island villages near Keti Bunder and Kharo Chhan coastal areas of Thatta and Sujwal districts, are paying huge cost of negligence, as the strong winds with high tides have wiped out their makeshift abodes used to store food stuff, The News has learnt.

Following Cyclone Vayu, strong winds with high tides have stricken the coastal area, mainly affecting islanders, pushing them to take shelter on fishing boats in the water to avoid loss of lives.

Whole families have either been taken refuge on boats or have moved to nearby safer places, reports pouring in from the area said.

Community activists from Keti bunder said the government's district administration officials visited coastal areas earlier to see the vulnerability of people and returned back without considering the risks facing the neglected distant islanding communities that always face huge losses.

Gulab Shah, a community activist from Keti Bunder said, “Since the seas are rough, nobody from outside wants to take the risk of reaching out to rescue or provide the stranded islanders with food”.

“High tides with strong winds have inundated many villages, forcing people to take shelter on their fishing boats to move near mangroves forests,” Shah said, adding that according to officials the situation would take more than 48 hours to normalise, as the cyclone was weakening along the Pakistan coastline.

Anyways, the islanders’ were caught in highly unfortunate situation because they need help and must at least be supplies with food items in this difficult time, activists suggest.

The high tides also destroyed crab and shrimps farming ponds at the islands. Some of the people have developed crabs farms as an alternative source of income, as sometimes they face shortage of catch due to weather ups and downs.

The activists also said though there was no data about the crabs and shrimp farms and its value, it was a huge loss for the locals.

Noor Muhammad Thahimore from Jati neighbourhood said stormy conditions led to the flooding of many low lying villages along the seashore, destroying the huts and houses repeatedly, forcing the frightened poor people to rebuild their shelters over and over again.

On May 20, 1999, Thahimore’s locality was struck by cyclone 02A, which killed more than 400 people, while many more had gone missing in its wake. Some elderly fishermen said the colour of sea water is changed after developing this disaster. Almost all boats which moved to the open sea earlier had come back safely after sensing the danger.

Fishermen activists from Rehri Mayan, Bin Qasim Town Karachi, said low lying areas of the villages had come under water, creating panic for the communities. “Though the situation seems normal near there but the people are afraid of facing loss,” they said.

Asif Bhatti, a community activist of Bhit Island Karachi said they are receiving updates by the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) and staying put in their areas. “Winds are rough all around going in the water is risk that no one is ready to take right now”, Bhatti said.

Officials at Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS), the welfare body of the community, termed the situation normal, saying they were alert and monitoring the situation to help people in need.

The coastal people, mostly living in Thatta and Sujawal districts and islands are seen vulnerable to face disasters. Whenever they receive warning calls for moving to safer places they remind them of the previous disaster in which they had lost so many of their loved ones.

Around three million people residing along 350-kilometer long coastline reportedly have been associated with marine fishing directly or indirectly for their livelihood.