From Shikarpur to Karachi, our journey has been full of misery, recounts flood survivor

Flood survivors, development experts talk on the flood, funds for rehabilitation and more.

KARACHI: “You cannot imagine how we’ve suffered from the floods,” said 18-year-old Salma Mahar, of Lakhi Ghulam Shah, Shikarpur, who described how her family fled their home at a two-day conference in Karachi on Thursday.

Standing at the rostrum, she told the audience how abandoned she felt. “From Shikarpur to Sukkur and then Karachi, our journey has been full of misery. Even after settling here, we are now being asked by the government to leave the camp.”

Their Rs20,000 has already been spent on utensils and daily-use items. But what they need most is shelter. “We have no other place to live.”

The conference on Flood and Beyond: Recovery, Reconstruction and Reforms was jointly organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK), Sungi Development Foundation and Centre for Peace and Civil Society.

Different case studies were presented and flood survivors from the Punjab and Sindh shared their plight. Development experts, flood victims and government officials discussed the effects, interventions and the role of both governmental and non-governmental organisations in helping the flood-hit population.

Speakers emphasised the need to reprioritise the budget and tax proposals, reduce unnecessary government expenses and save funds for rehabilitation.

Architect, urban planner and Urban Resource Centre chairman Arif Hasan, chairing the first session on “stocktaking of recent floods”, commented on experiences shared by community representatives, civil society activists and journalists. “If flood victims do not want to return, they should be accommodated as they wish,” suggested Hasan.

Researcher Dr Nadia Saleem recommended that the government manage all the expenses and utilise its funds on rehabilitation so that foreign loans can be utilised only for debt servicing.

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum general secretary Saeed Baloch gave an overview of the destruction due to breaches in various dykes of Sindh. He said the government allowed floodwater to flow in villages and towns to save some establishments.

Irfan Mufti, the deputy director of South Asia Partnership, Pakistan, drew the audience’s attention to the country’s traditional farming system in which farmers take small loans from landlords and lenders and return them after the harvest. Landlords and lenders are pressurising farmers to return their debts at any cost, he informed. “When the government initiates the rehabilitation process, it should take the issue of debt in consideration before anything else.”

Journalist and Centre for Peace and Civil Society executive director Jami Chandio pointed out the lack of disaster or damage assessment and how there is no scientific and transparent evaluation of losses. “Disaster management is a failure,” he remarked.

Dr Manzoor Ahmed, the Sungi Development Foundation director operations, said the government’s capacity to respond to such a huge disaster is inadequate. “We were not prepared for such a disaster,” he said.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Sindh’s director operations Khair Mohammad Kalwar said the authority was formed about a year ago and so they do not have the resources and manpower to deal with such a catastrophe. “We only have 26 employees. Offices in other districts of Sindh have yet to be established.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2010.