Flood victims sell possessions, beg

The Junejo’s accept the fact that they must fend for themselves.

PINGRIO: The family of 12 were relieved when an army boat rescued them from flood waters a week ago. But the hardships have only piled up at a makeshift camp. The few family possessions saved from the roaring waters have been sold to buy food. The children have picked up potentially fatal diseases but can’t afford to rest. And the government is nowhere to be found. “The children have been begging in the market to get food, and from the passing cars,” said Ahmed Junejo, one of almost two million people displaced by floods which have ravaged Sindh.

Like many flood victims, the Junejo family are resigned to the fact they will have to fend for themselves.

“I just need two things -- food and a tent to protect my children from the sun and the rain. That’s what we need here,” said Ahmed, 50. “Nobody has come to even look at us so we don’t know where the relief camps are, and nobody had told us about any aid being delivered anywhere. We are still waiting for someone to come.”

It could be a while. Pakistan’s cash-strapped government has been slow to respond to the floods, which have killed over 300 people and damaged or destroyed about 1.2 million houses since monsoon rains triggered the crisis in late August. It’s a repeat performance of last year, when authorities failed to ease the suffering of millions hit by epic floods in July and August, prompting the military to take charge.

Some 800,000 families hit by that calamity remain homeless. The army is active again, travelling across kilometres of flooded farmland in boats to rescue people who have just the clothes on their backs. But that hasn’t eased the anxiety of families like the Junejos, who are stuck on barren land beside a petrol station. They lost about 20 goats, which were used for milk or food and were their only assets.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th,  2011.