Floods 2012: Unhappy relief dept official blames NGOs for not pulling their weight

Haleem Adil Sheikh says NGOs, political parties are nowhere to be seen this year.

KARACHI: The government’s point man for handling relief operations in the wake of natural disasters, Haleem Adil Shaikh, has blamed local as well as international nongovernment agencies for what he called a lackluster response to the heavy rains in upper Sindh this September.

On Thursday, adviser Sheikh appealed to the nation to come forward and help the flood survivors. “We won’t appeal to international donors and NGOs. They are well aware of the situation but don’t work in the fields when we need them,” said a rather upset Sheikh, who was speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.

The government is trying is best to deal with the situation, but the political parties and NGOs that helped us deal with floods in 2010 and 2011 are absent this year, added Shaikh. The Sindh government is also helping around 2,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Punjab and many more from Balochistan.

Six districts of upper Sindh - Jacobabad, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur - were hit by torrential rains that started in August and continued till September. The situation has been brought under control in Shikarpur and Sukkur, but Khairpur and Jacobabad continue to be in need of a serious relief operation. “People have lost almost all of their valuables and are in a state of trauma. We have to share their pain,” pleaded Shaikh. There are 50,000 IDPs in Jacobabad, Kandhokot and Larkana, and the relief department plans to celebrate Eidul Azha with them.

Apart from the rains, excess water flowing from Balochistan as well as man-made breaches in embankments were responsible for causing flooding of these areas, claimed the adviser.

He requested Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to declare two union councils of Dadu district, Faridabad and Madho, calamity-hit.

Shaikh added that the government was also trying its best to help farmers whose agricultural fields had been swept away by the floods.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.