Rain and drain woes: 18 more dead, death toll crosses 100

Army starts rescue operations as floodwaters threaten upper Sindh.

SUKKUR: After six days of heavy rains, floodwaters are threatening Sindh and the army has moved in to rescue people in the worst-hit areas. The death toll of rain-related mishaps has crossed 100, as 18 more people died on Wednesday.

After record-breaking rain in Jacobabad and Kashmore, thousands of people are stranded in the low-lying areas, where, according to reports, five to six feet water has accumulated.

Torrents coming downhill from Balochistan have played havoc with ten union councils in the Thull taluka of Jacobabad. As hundreds of houses collapsed due to flooding, at least 18 people, including women and children, were reported to have died. Another 78 were reportedly injured.

On Wednesday, hundreds of army personnel were dispatched to the rain-hit areas, including RD-44 and Bahoo Khoso, where thousands of people have been stranded for the past five days.

In Ghotki, a teenage girl was crushed by a wall in the Katcho Bhindi area. A three-year-old girl, Kariman, drowned in rainwater in Rehmoonwali.

Rainwater has also entered the Shahi Wah and Pat Feeder canals, breaching both in at least four places. The water is now heading towards the outskirts of Jacobabad.

Relief camps have been set up in Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore. The people are, however, reluctant to go to the camps as neither food nor medicines are available. The district administrations have arranged cooked meals for the rain-hit people, but instead of being distributed among them, the food is being taken away by the influential.

First priority to save lives: Chief minister

The first priority of the government is to save human lives, said chief minister Qaim Ali Shah while talking to the media at Sukkur’s Circuit House on Wednesday afternoon.

The chief minister, flanked by provincial ministers Agha Siraj Durrani, Ayaz Soomro, Muzaffar Shujra, Mohan Lal Kohistani and Haleem Adil Shaikh, visited some of the rain-affected areas of Sukkur and then left for Khairpur. For the third consecutive year, torrential rains have caused massive destruction in Sindh. More than 480mm rainfall has been recorded in Jacobabad over the past six days, leading to widespread flooding.

The situation in Sindh is not the result of mismanagement or incapability of the district administration - the rainfall was simply unexpected, Shah believed. He admitted that a large number of people have lost their lives and hundreds of katcha houses have collapsed.

Seven districts of upper Sindh - Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Larkana - have been severely affected by monsoon rains. The district administrations have been issued Rs25 million each for rescue and relief. The Sindh government spent Rs45 billion on rescue and relief during the flood of 2010 and rains of 2011 and the development budget had to be cut by one third.

The weather forecast predicted heavy rainfall in the coastal belt of Sindh, but there were no rains during July and August. The downpour started throughout upper Sindh in September and thus the situation went beyond control.

Referring to the devastation in Jacobabad, he said that the city’s drainage system is under construction, but pumps have been installed to drain rainwater. But pumping out the rainwater may take some time - giving the example of last year’s rain in lower Sindh, Shah said it took six months to drain the rainwater.

In Sukkur city, power has been out since the rains started. Almost seven million gallons of rainwater has accumulated in the low-lying areas of the city. It is next to impossible to clear up in the absence of electricity, said Shah.

A delegation of traders led by the president of the Sukkur Small Traders met Shah and told him about the damage that the rain had caused in Sukkur city. They told the chief minister that the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation had failed miserably in localities where water had become stagnant and because of this, traders have lost millions of rupees. “A committee is being formed to probe the matter, after which action will be taken against the responsible officials,” Shah told them.

Around 7,500 tents are to be set up in Sukkur for the people displaced by rains, Haleem Adil Shaikh, the adviser on relief, told The Express Tribune. Moreover, 240 heavy-duty dewatering pumps will be called in from Sanghar and Tando Allahyar. “Funds are not a problem, as the chief minister has directed the district administrations to spend whatever they can on relief,” he added.

“An assessment to determine the number of people and cattle killed is underway,” said Shaikh. He added that the chief minister has announced that Rs200,000 will be given to the families of people who died. Damaged crops and houses will also be compensated. “It is nations, not governments, who must face the challenges of natural calamities,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2012.