Too many mouths, too little to eat
With massive destruction in the agricultural sector, experts fear the country might suffer a food shortage.
SUKKUR:
“I want some food for my mother,” nine-year-old Aasia Mirani told The Express Tribune. She was standing outside a girls’ school near the old railway godown in Sukkur, which is being used as a temporary relief camp.
Aasia’s family does not live at the camp as her family is not among the people, who lost everything in the floods. They live in a house nearby. Aasia was sent to the camp by her parents to fetch food as her father is disabled and her mother sick.
Similarly, a large number of women and children gathered around a Suzuki van outside the camp. It was packed with degs of biryani that were brought in for the campers, but were in fact also being distributed among the locals.
“We are very poor people and cannot afford biryani,” said Ameeran Shaikh, adding, “My children are hungry and I am trying to get some biryani for them.”
“My children are waiting for me,” said a content Khudan Mirani, who was about to return home after he was successful in getting some biryani in a shopping bag.
However, one of the campers, identified as Kaloo, was not happy with the idea of outsiders coming and taking food from the camp.
“They are taking our food,” he said, adding “We are living at this relief camp out of compulsion. Because our houses have been inundated with water and we cannot go back. But these outsiders are snatching our food.”
Stingy when it comes to ladling out qorma
As hopeful flood survivors approached the food distributors with large pans, only to return with small portions of grudgingly-ladled out qorma, they complained that the management was being stingy with food.
“A little qorma and four naans are quite insufficient for a family of 10,” Haq Nawaz Mirani, a resident of kachcha bunder told The Express Tribune.
“We have been sitting on the roadside without food and medical assistance ever since our houses were flooded,” Haq Nawaz complained. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party office-bearers had been giving them food twice a day for the last one week, he added.
Haq Nawaz is one of the thousands of kachcha bunder residents who were settled on the Indus riverbed. They were forced to leave their homes when the flash floods arrived. Some resettled just outside the embankment wall while others moved to relief camps.
Iqbal Mirani, Fayaz Mirani and Mohammad Nawaz Mirani also complained about the lack of food at these camps.
“People quarrel over food during its distribution, because everybody wants more for their family,” they said, adding, “ 360 families - more than 32,00 people - are living outside the embankment wall and are getting two degs of qorma and 250 naans for lunch with only one deg of chicken biryani for dinner, which is quite insufficient.”
Mohammad Mian Mirani and Mohammad Aslam Mirani, who were distributing qorma and naans among the residents, were literally fighting with the people who gathered around them to get food for their families before it finished. They may have been tempted to satisfy the hungry mob by ladling out more generous portions, but knew that they could not afford to, given the large number of people who had to be fed with the modest quantity.
“I often remain hungry, because half a naan is not a meal,” said Phapul, who sat with her husband, Taj Mohammad Mirani and distributed pieces of naan among their six children.
The family was sharing the remnants of a qorma that was too little to begin with. “My children eat very little, because that’s what they get,” Phapul went on to say. “Earlier, when my husband used to earn, he used to bring home enough food for the children. But now he is jobless, because business activities in the city have slowed down,” she said.
Nazuk Hussain Mirani, who used to transport vegetables and wood from the kachcha areas to the mainland in a hired boat, has also become jobless. “The entire kachcha area is inundated with water and no boats can operate against the strong current,” he laments.
“We are waiting for the water to recede, so that we can go back home and start earning a livelihood again,” said Nazuk Hussain, adding that it might take 15 more days for them to be able to go home.
When asked when he plans to move back home, Ashiq Mirani said that wild boars and snakes are currently residing in their houses, which have become inhabitable for people after the floods.
“We are waiting for the water to recede completely before we go back,” said Ashiq, who added that the first thing to do then would be to rebuild the houses that collapsed during the floods.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2010.
“I want some food for my mother,” nine-year-old Aasia Mirani told The Express Tribune. She was standing outside a girls’ school near the old railway godown in Sukkur, which is being used as a temporary relief camp.
Aasia’s family does not live at the camp as her family is not among the people, who lost everything in the floods. They live in a house nearby. Aasia was sent to the camp by her parents to fetch food as her father is disabled and her mother sick.
Similarly, a large number of women and children gathered around a Suzuki van outside the camp. It was packed with degs of biryani that were brought in for the campers, but were in fact also being distributed among the locals.
“We are very poor people and cannot afford biryani,” said Ameeran Shaikh, adding, “My children are hungry and I am trying to get some biryani for them.”
“My children are waiting for me,” said a content Khudan Mirani, who was about to return home after he was successful in getting some biryani in a shopping bag.
However, one of the campers, identified as Kaloo, was not happy with the idea of outsiders coming and taking food from the camp.
“They are taking our food,” he said, adding “We are living at this relief camp out of compulsion. Because our houses have been inundated with water and we cannot go back. But these outsiders are snatching our food.”
Stingy when it comes to ladling out qorma
As hopeful flood survivors approached the food distributors with large pans, only to return with small portions of grudgingly-ladled out qorma, they complained that the management was being stingy with food.
“A little qorma and four naans are quite insufficient for a family of 10,” Haq Nawaz Mirani, a resident of kachcha bunder told The Express Tribune.
“We have been sitting on the roadside without food and medical assistance ever since our houses were flooded,” Haq Nawaz complained. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party office-bearers had been giving them food twice a day for the last one week, he added.
Haq Nawaz is one of the thousands of kachcha bunder residents who were settled on the Indus riverbed. They were forced to leave their homes when the flash floods arrived. Some resettled just outside the embankment wall while others moved to relief camps.
Iqbal Mirani, Fayaz Mirani and Mohammad Nawaz Mirani also complained about the lack of food at these camps.
“People quarrel over food during its distribution, because everybody wants more for their family,” they said, adding, “ 360 families - more than 32,00 people - are living outside the embankment wall and are getting two degs of qorma and 250 naans for lunch with only one deg of chicken biryani for dinner, which is quite insufficient.”
Mohammad Mian Mirani and Mohammad Aslam Mirani, who were distributing qorma and naans among the residents, were literally fighting with the people who gathered around them to get food for their families before it finished. They may have been tempted to satisfy the hungry mob by ladling out more generous portions, but knew that they could not afford to, given the large number of people who had to be fed with the modest quantity.
“I often remain hungry, because half a naan is not a meal,” said Phapul, who sat with her husband, Taj Mohammad Mirani and distributed pieces of naan among their six children.
The family was sharing the remnants of a qorma that was too little to begin with. “My children eat very little, because that’s what they get,” Phapul went on to say. “Earlier, when my husband used to earn, he used to bring home enough food for the children. But now he is jobless, because business activities in the city have slowed down,” she said.
Nazuk Hussain Mirani, who used to transport vegetables and wood from the kachcha areas to the mainland in a hired boat, has also become jobless. “The entire kachcha area is inundated with water and no boats can operate against the strong current,” he laments.
“We are waiting for the water to recede, so that we can go back home and start earning a livelihood again,” said Nazuk Hussain, adding that it might take 15 more days for them to be able to go home.
When asked when he plans to move back home, Ashiq Mirani said that wild boars and snakes are currently residing in their houses, which have become inhabitable for people after the floods.
“We are waiting for the water to recede completely before we go back,” said Ashiq, who added that the first thing to do then would be to rebuild the houses that collapsed during the floods.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2010.