KESC finds the power to lighten this load

THATTA: The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) may have been in the red for a while, but this didn’t stop it from somehow starting one of the biggest corporate flood relief operations in the country with an investment of $1.2 million for 30,000 flood survivors.

For Eid, the company organised a mela for the 1,500 people,mostly from Sujawal, who are staying at a camp in Thatta. For the most part, it was a relatively happier day as the grownups received sweets and the children bangles and balloons. A man on stilts and an entertainer took their minds off the floods for a while and someone came up with the idea of holding a poetry competition and playing music so the children could dance to their favourite tracks.

This respite from the trauma of fleeing their homes was much needed. Late-night TV watchers in Sujawal turned out to be the lucky ones as they heard the 3am evacuation call given on a news channel that warned residents to leave within three hours. Those who heard the warning call fled by road while the others stranded travelled by boat or were rescued by the Pakistan Navy.

“We heard on a news channel in the middle of the night that floodwaters would reach the village in three hours so we evacuated,” said labourer Suleman Maila who left in the morning by road with his two children and wife. “Everything, including the television that saved us, has been destroyed but we will go back and start over,” he said.

Lawmaker Sassui Palijo’s plea to leave came a bit late as we had to escape the village by boat, said Ghulam Mustafa, one of the 37 family members living in two tents. But today conditions have slightly improved. “The company’s people are giving us a week’s food supplies at a time,” said an elderly woman who was kneading dough to make bread. The camp is the only one in the vicinity with two water filtration plants.

World Health Organisation doctors have approved the clinic set up by the Aman Foundation that is funded by Abraaj Capital, KESC’s parent company. Four doctors with a team of more than 19 people are working round the clock, said Adil Aziz Qureshi, a manager with the foundation. Four mobile clinics have treated more than 16,000 patients in a month. Doctors said that skin infections topped the list of conditions followed by the flu and diarrhoea.

The government school-turned relief camp has teachers staying in the building to keep the children busy during the day while sporting events are also held regularly. “Areas of the camp have been named after the six babies who were born here in the last month,” said KESC Corporate Social Responsibility general manager Zehra Mehdi. The camp started on the first day of Ramazan and will go on for another month after which the people will return home as the water level is expected to drop considerably, said a KESC representative.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2010.