Unless Sanghar’s stagnant street water is cleared up, disease will persist

A weak Sim Nala and destroyed sewage system led to the problem.

SANGHAR: A month on from the devastating rains, water levels continue to remain unnaturally high in Sanghar, with some locals and officials pointing the finger at politicians and landowners for reportedly worsening the crisis.

Roads in the district overflow with water, mixed with sewage, as the sewage system in the main town has been destroyed.

Even UNOCHA Sindh Director Fawad Hussain has said, although cautiously, that the stagnant water in Sanghar town “did not come as a result of the natural water flow”.

Manipulating the
waterways

Flood survivors here themselves claim that landowners around their villages have manipulated the canals and irrigation systems in such a way that when floods come, their own lands are protected while areas surrounding their fields are inundated.

Prem Sagar works with Development Contributors, known as DevCon, in the area. He says that the unnatural flooding of Sanghar town was caused by the manipulation of the Sim Nala by landowners.

“The water isn’t really supposed to head for the city, which is higher than the surrounding areas,” he explains. Additionally, resources were allocated to strengthen the nala with concrete so that when water pressure went up, it would be able to take the pressure. But the money was “never used by the local authorities”. What happened, as expected was that the mud embankments collapsed.

The people living in the area have noticed all of this even if they aren’t able to do anything about it. One of them is Ali Baksh, who was displaced from his village of Sonay Fakir Kotto to a makeshift camp run by DevCon and the International Organisation of Migration. “Next time they come and ask for my vote, I will say no,” he said angrily referring to the elected representatives from the area. “They have done nothing for me. They’ve taken away everything.” Another woman in the camp, Tajjaa, backed this claim. “We’ve never had to beg till now. My brother travelled to another village to get back one kilogramme of flour. We have nothing to eat.”

The need of the hour

Ten minutes from the camp is a World Food Programme distribution centre working in collaboration with Save the Children. When asked why people within walking distance had no food,  UNOCHA’s Hussain explains, “We are trying to provide food for six districts, but we only have food for 10,000 families.” He says that since all six district need to be provided for within their limited funds, people within each district are left without food.

Hussain adds that another problem is that buses carrying food get looted, so that by the time they reach their destination they have nothing at all. “Only 6% of the UN appeal has been met [so far],” Hussain says. Even more worrying however, is the reality that all government stocks for flood victims will be depleted by October 10.

Negligence

Meanwhile, the destroyed sewage system is worrying doctors.

One of them who is volunteering for the UK-based NGO Muslim Aid says that the most widespread diseases in the area are scabies, malaria and diarrhoea.

And this problem will persist until the stagnant water in the streets is cleared. The suction pumps are constantly promised by Sanghar’s DCO but never come, he added. UNOCHA’s Hussain says another problem with the spread of diseases is that there are no labs where people could be properly diagnosed, especially when it comes to differentiating between malaria and dengue.

MNA from Sanghar, the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s Khuda Bakhsh Rajar was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.