Sindh floods: Devastation is worse than from a tsunami, says CM

A total of eight districts declared calamity hit, others asking for the same.

HYDERABAD: The Sindh government is to release about Rs30 billion in compensation in the form of Watan Cards and registration for the cards has begun, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

“We have some six million affected people in the province,” the CM told reporters at Kharoro Syed village after touring the affected areas of Umerkot and declaring the district calamity hit. The declaration takes the total of calamity hit districts to eight as requests from other districts continue to pour in.

As for Sanghar, where an estimated 200,000 people have been displaced, he asked the district’s administration to submit a status report within ten days.

Speaking in Umerkot’s Kunri tehsil, Shah assured traders and farmers that they will be granted interest-free loans to help them revive their ruined businesses. Affected families will be given an endowment of Rs100,000.

Situation in other areas

As many as 321 villages in Naushero Feroze, Nawabshah and Sanghar are inundated, leaving millions homeless. Khadim Chandio, Hashim Phal, Jan Muhammad Barohi, Panhal Faqir and Muhammad Changal Dehri have been inundated in Naushero Feroze. Nawabshah has suffered huge losses due to flash floods More than 60 villages have been affected in Nawabshah.

Meanwhile, in Shahdadpur, at least 2,000 villages have been flooded displacing more than 0.2 million people.

Growers want all of Sindh to be declared calamity-hit

The farmers of Sindh who have suffered a colossal loss to their crops in flash floods - estimated to be over 1.6 million acres - have given the government until October 10 to repair the shattered irrigation system for their rabi (winter) sowing.

The growers fear that after their kharif (summer) crops were destroyed in the rain, they will also be unable to sow their rabi crops which would lead to a great deficit in food.

“The government should help the affected farmers to cultivate four million acres of wheat crop, 1 million acres of sunflower and different varieties of pulses on 300,000 acres,” they demanded in a meeting of Sindh Abadgar Board. They came forward with detailed recommendations to rebuild irrigation and a list of demands.

They asked that the whole province be declared calamity hit, loans be waived, generous assistance be offered to the affected people, complete government support for the rabi sowing and the distribution of fertilizers and seeds free or at subsidised prices.

With additional information from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th,  2011.