Lasbela farmers plead for govt’s support for rehabilitation

LASBSELA: Saeen Dad Sheikh of union committee Lakhra of district Lasbela, Balochistan, lives in a mud house, which is no bigger than one room, along with his six family members. Despite all his miseries induced by the floods, all he demands from the government is a few litres of diesel to plough his fields.

Remnants of the devastating floods are palpable in his house. Scruffy clothes and curtains are strewn across. A torn teddy bear peeks through those clothes just at the entrance. A rickety wooden clock lies lifeless on floor. The rusty steel cupboard is covered in white dust.

“The flood was massive. There was water everywhere,” he said, requesting the nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and the government to visit their areas to inquire about their needs and then resort to rehabilitation. Sheikh is not eyeing on ration bags in form of aid. “We can sell our cattle and buy food,” he said, adding that their future depends on irrigation.

He shared with ‘The News’ how they grow wheat, cotton and other crops in the field. When it rains, the rainwater comes and they store it through small mud walls surrounding their fields. This time, the floodwater wreaked havoc. “It has brought itself mud which needs to be ploughed massively,” he explained. For this purpose, they need one tractor to plough their one small piece of land for at least one hour continuously, for which they require at least Rs3,000 diesel.

The local farmers do not have tractors and demanded NGOs and the government to provide them with tractors and diesel. Crops at millions of acres, he said, have already been destroyed in the floods. If aid does not arrive after a proper survey, he stressed, the local farmers of district Lasbela would not be able to grow upcoming crops of wheat and mustard and would incur even more losses.

German Consulate General, H.E. Holger Ziegeler and CEO Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) Dr Shahnawaz Khan signed a project earlier in August to provide food aid for 1,000 families for two months in Lasbela district. The designate German Honorary Consul in Quetta, Mir Murad Baloch, facilitated this arrangement.

As per the same project, Ziegeler distributed food aid among the flood victims of Lasbela on Thursday. “I am shocked by the devastation caused by floods. The mud is still here, destruction and damages all over. Heartbroken to see the provinces that me and my wife have fallen in love with, are in such a devastating state,” he said.

Because this is a dire emergency, he said, they need to provide assistance right away. Early response is always crucial. “The well-being of my host provinces Sindh and Balochistan is always on my mind. It is natural for the people to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during and after such a disaster. It is difficult not to feel deeply moved after seeing such detailed descriptions of tragedy. Our relief will help flood-stricken families with their immediate nutrition needs and allow them to focus on other pressing issues.”

Mir Murad Baloch said that the donation is extra special to the people of Balochistan. “The magnitude of this calamity is massive and unprecedented in the country’s history. In Balochistan only, almost 85,000 houses have been destroyed, millions of people displaced, their livestock swept away and their agricultural land and crops obliterated. This support will help provide the much-needed relief to the people. It will take years for the people to overcome such a catastrophe, mentally as well,” he said.

Dr Shahnawaz said that Pakistan has incurred a loss of $30 billion. “I want to call upon the international donors to help Pakistan in these trying times,” he said. The German Federal Foreign Office’s Humanitarian Assistance on appeal made the funds available from the Consulate General.

Deputy Commissioner Lasbela Murad Kasi said that Lasbela has been the worst flood-hit district during the monsoon as 422 millimeters rainfall has been recorded. “We are in pre-rehabilitation phase, in which surveys are being conducted jointly by the Pakistan Army, district administration and other executing departments,” he said, adding that 72 percent of the survey work has been completed, which is a bigger task than that of a census. The government has announced Rs0.5 million in compensation for a fully-damaged house and Rs0.2 million for a partially-damaged house.

The government has set up 132 medical camps and they are focusing on establishing more such camps as malaria is rampant. Fumigation sprays are also being conducted simultaneously. He said that it would take at least two years to rebuild the damaged infrastructure. “The internal road network of district Lasbela has been damaged in the floods,” he said.