Far from relief: Two years on, no place to call home for the flood-affected of Eingerabad

A family affected by the 2010 floods has not been accommodated.

SWAT:

Once known for its lush green beauty and clear blue streams, Eingerabad village now presents the look of a wasteland with nothing but rubble and stones everywhere. When the devastating 2010 floods struck, as many as 95 houses were wiped out in the blink of an eye. Located along the bank of the Madyan Khwar stream in Madyan valley, the village held fascination for visitors and locals alike.

“It was very strange so see the stream in such a rage, swallowing house after house. It felt like being in a movie. The huge waves of the river were attacking everything like a monster,” said Yasin, an eighth grader who sat outside his tent house in the village on Thursday.

He added that his family became homeless in seconds. They were shifted to a nearby school, where they lived for a month and then to a shelter house for some time. But the land owner dislodged them so he could cultivate the land. Since then they have been residing in a tent house  installed where their house used to be. “These tents often get blown away by the wind. We have to put them back every now and then. The nights are extremely cold,” he added.

His brother, Sohail told The Express Tribune, “We can tackle most problems but there is no washing facility and we have to do our latrine only in the night under the open sky.” He added that his father is a labourer and an asthma patient due to which he cannot work properly.

Though many local NGOs have initiated relief activities in the area and some have constructed shelter houses in the village but Yasin’s family could not be benefited with one.

“My father has been constantly visiting NGOs and government offices to construct a house for us but was unable to,” he lamented. “We appeal government and non-government organisations to construct a house for us,” said Yasin.

On the other hand, a local NGO worker Naveed Khan said, “This family had no land of their own. We included them in the survey list but since their house was washed away by the floods and the stream had changed its course running on their land, we could not construct shelter for them. If he had his own land, any NGO would have constructed a shelter house for them,” he said.

When contacted, Sub Divisional Magistrate Mohammad Naeem Khan said that he would motivate some organisations for the construction of shelter or permanent house for them.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2012.