Post-flood scenario: Jafarabad victims call for end to miseries

At a hunger strike camp is Islamabad, protesters call for swift action in their district.

ISLAMABAD: Call it apathy of authorities or just bad luck, the hunger strike camp of flood-affected people from Jafarabad district in Balochistan in the capital attracts the attention of every passerby — save for those who are at the helm of affairs.

Fifty-year-old Nasiba Jamali and other flood affected people of district Jafarabad set up a hunger strike camp in front of the National Press Club more than a week ago. They are protesting against the slow pace of relief work in their areas that were damaged by floods of 2010 and later years. They say that the authorities concerned have carried out no tangible relief work in their areas, leaving them at the mercy of weather and nature, which they fear, could hit them again.

Nasiba said that many villages of Gandakha Tehsil are still under water and no relief work has been done either by the provincial government or the federal government, which has exacerbated their miseries.

Najama Baloch of the Women Welfare Organization said that the floods have badly damaged agriculture land in Jafarabad district, which may not be used for growing crops again, at least in the short-term future. “The floods ravaged peoples’ only source of livelihood,” she said.



Similarly, Noor Jehan Memon of the Nisa Development Organization said that more than 100 rice mills had been shut due to the damage caused to the rice crop by the flood. “It has rendered more than 10,000 workers jobless and, as a result of this, the crime rate has surged in the flood-hit areas,” Memod said. She added that the affected families were desperately looking for help, but no one was forthcoming. She said that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has done nothing on ground to rehabilite the affected people.

Meanwhile, Abdul Sattar of the same district alleged that the PDMA officials were selling non-food items to the affected people and demanded of the federal government to investigate the matter.

The protesters demanded that a contingency plan should be devised for their rehabilitation. They also called for the remaining instalments of Watan Cards to be released at the earliest and healthcare facilities and schools in their areas should be restored.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.