Lack of coordination?: Having survived two earthquakes, people still await help

AWARAN:

Survivors of the earthquake sat amid rocks and debris under the scorching heat of a sizzling September sun.

Makeshift straw shacks gave little shelter to men, women and children in Malaar, Teetrij, Gishkor and other villages which were razed to the ground by twice-hitting earthquake. With no relief in sight, they dug into the debris with their fingers to take out their meagre possessions.

It was the same story in all of the six villages visited. They had no food, no shelter and no medicines. In the village Sarremalaar, some 25 km from the military base in Awaran, the Frontier Corps did come with some food that was insufficient even for a single family.

Nasir, a district government accountant, said that the FC came with a single can of cooking oil tin and half a kilo of lentils. “We refused to accept that with good grace. We told them we can do without that. We needed tents for cover and latrines for our women but they would not listen to us,” he complained.

When asked why, since he works for the district, did he not contact a government official, he replied, “There was no point. Had government officials been interested, they would have visited our village and other areas.”

In other villages too, they asked for tents and latrines for women. Because of they observe strict purdah, the women must have separate toilets reserved only for women.

The villagers complained that there had been no one even to assess the damage in the area. “No NGO, no official – absolutely no one came even to ask us what we needed,” said Aasa Khan, a resident of union council Teertij.

Other villagers agreed that no one had bothered to even assess the damage or ask how many had died or were injured.

The estimates of casualties and fatalities show wide discrepancies since they are being carried out at random and unsystematically. In Pakistan Army's Earthquake Disaster briefing to the chief ministers of Balochistan and Sindh on Friday, they claimed that the damage in the area was 25 to 30 per cent. But on visiting the area, a media team found that the damage was almost 100 per cent. Almost all the houses were razed to the ground. The few that remained had big cracks anyone could see, and they might collapse in aftershocks.

Trucks are leaving for Awaran

According to media reports, dozens of trucks are leaving Karachi and Quetta for Awaran and the other remote areas. This is true, as many trucks can be seen driving by. At least 30 trucks were spotted loaded with relief goods.

It is a pity that FC soldiers barred these trucks from entering Awaran. As you drive by the first FC camp, you can see as many as 12 trucks parked by the roadside, their drivers loitering and waiting for the permission to drive on.

Even when a truck is allowed to pass through, it has to wait at the deputy commissioner’s office close to the military headquarters in Awaran.

About 20 trucks laden with tents and food were seen parked outside that office compound.

“I was told to bring the truck here. That’s it. I have to follow orders,” said the driver of a private transport company. He had brought the truck from Jinnah Town in Quetta.

A local social worker at the DC office was asked where the trucks would go and why were they parked here. He just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. He had no answer.

When a Water Management Board official was asked if he had any guidelines regarding the relief work, he too said, he had no instructions.

Is this what a nation does when people face calamity?

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2013.