People return to rubble, ruins

DAIRA DIN PANAH:

Floodwater, ruined crops and rubble greet those returning back to Daira Din Panah. One of the first areas to be hit by floods in southern Punjab, stagnant water still stands where courtyards used to be.

Naveed Iqbal surveys the damage done to his new house. The courtyard is full of water, and the walls have caved in. “We had already sent the women and children to safer locations,” Iqbal says, recalling the flood that hit on August 2. “The city was flooded within hours. You could see water passing over the roofs of houses at a height of 12 feet.”

Iqbal and his extended family have returned back to Daira Din Panah after living the lives of refugees. They moved from Kot Addu to Muzaffargarh to Chowk Munda.

His brother owned a godown which stocked wheat. The flood water damaged the stocks, and he has lost up to Rs400,000. But they are thankful that their lives were spared, and that they still have a house to return to.

His neighbour, Salma Javed, points out the marks the water left on the walls. “We only packed two or three changes of clothes for the children,” she says, recalling how she left her house when she heard the flood was approaching. “You can’t even think at that time what to take.”

As a mother, she says, she was terrified for her children. Javed wipes away tears with her dupatta and says, “Even though we have lost earnings, at least we can still sit in our home and eat an honest meal of daal roti. So many cannot even do that.”

The challenges of reconstruction and rehabilitation are complicated. Residents of Daira Din Panah have lost millions because of damage done to their property and crops. They are not in a position to start rebuilding, and the area’s infrastructure is in tatters.

Displaced people are still scrambling for relief goods, having lost everything that they owned. Those who once led comfortable lives have been left impoverished.

“I had Rs25,000 when I left the house,” Iqbal says. “When I came back, I only had Rs4,000. All of my money has been spent in transporting the family to safer locations, but at least they are safe now.”

As people return to Daira Din Panah, they bring with them the ailments they have picked up in crowded relief camps, specifically diarrhoea and heat rash. But the local hospital, according to residents, is still full of ankle-deep water.

Iqbal does not know what the future holds. “Now only God will rebuild this house,” he says. “We are not in a position to do so.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2010.