Mother, three children drown in floodwater

A woman and her three children drowned in floodwater at the Thul-Jacobabad Road near Mubarakpur on Eid.

SUKKUR: A woman and her three children drowned in floodwater at the Thul-Jacobabad Road near Mubarakpur on the second day of Eid.

A tractor trolley taking flood affected people from Jacobabad to Thul overturned near Mubarakpur due to overspeeding. Some of the passengers fell into the floodwater and four of them, Gullan Khatoon wife of Rahim Bux Mastoi and her three children, Abdul Kabeer, five, Shahida, four, and Zaibun-Nisa, three, were swept away by the strong currents of water which are still flowing across the Thul-Jacobabad road.

Local divers fished out the bodies of Gullan Khatoon, Shahida and Abdul Kabeer after three hours of efforts but the body of the youngest child was not found, said DPO Jacobabad Pervaiz Chandio.

Meanwhile, five people, including three children, died of gastroenteritis in Thul during the last 24 hours, bringing the toll of gastroenteritis victims to 150.

The victims included Seema Sarki, 50, and Malook Machchi, 40. They were both residents of Sachal Sarki village. Dilshad, five, and Ashraf Jaffery of Deenpur and Khair Din, four, resident of Kamal Magsi, died of gastroenteritis on Monday.

According to doctors, gastroenteritis and other stomach related viruses are spreading swiftly after the floods because of polluted water, inadequate diet and unhygienic living conditions.

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