Ignored villagers protest near river

Eight days into their protest, still nobody has paid attention to the flood survivors from village Dhalo Ali Wahan.

SUKKUR: Fed up with their miseries, flood survivors from village Dhalo Ali Wahan have put up a protest camp near the river. However, eight days into their protest, nobody has paid much attention to these people.

“When it was time for general elections, leaders from political parties came door to door literally begging for our votes,” said an angry flood survivor, Ghulam Muhammad Solangi, “And now when we need them, they don’t have time to come to us.”

According to Solangi, nobody is providing them food or shelter and they have been left to their own resources-all of which were swept away in the flood.

Showing the rashes on his body, Solangi said he went to Sukkur to get his skin condition checked out, where the doctor charged him Rs200 and prescribed medicines for Rs425. “Of course I just came back without buying the medicines.”

“We spent all the money we had on food and now we have nothing,” bemoaned Sadiq Ali, standing with the help of crutches at the protest camp, “We are being forced to beg.” Tugging at his kurta, Ali said that even the clothes he was wearing had been donated to him by a man in Ali Wahan Town. “Because all I had was the dhoti I was wearing when we left our flooded village,” he said.

The 80 or so protesters camped at the river embankment are not demanding much.

“Just food two times a day and some medicines,” elaborated Ali. Another protester, Abdul Khaliq Solangi, told The Express Tribune that most of their children were suffering from gastroenteritis and skin diseases but they could not afford treatment.

Three people from our village ended up in the hospital after snake bites, Khaliq added.

Camps looking a little better

Meanwhile, the situation at relief camps nearby was somewhat better. According to Ghulam Mustafa Maitlo, at the camp set up in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School Rohri, flood survivors were getting meals twice a day. “The camp is also providing us with medical facilities,” he said.

Maitlo came to this camp seven days ago when their village, Jamal Din Maitlo, was flooded. More than 350 residents are now staying at this camp.

“The only problem is that there is no food for us at Sehri time,” said Maitlo, adding that they were given food in the evening and told to save some to serve as Sehri as well. However, keeping food out in the open for so long would just spoil it.

Ayub Maitlo too found a bright star in the morose atmosphere. The flood water is going to be good for our land, he said, explaining that they were expecting a better yield in the next few years after this. However, he added, our losses right now are great and the government must do something to compensate us.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2010.