Katcha area residents unwilling to move

TORI:

The floods had not hit Tori until Wednesday but the residents of the villages on the riverbed are unwilling to move to the relief camps set up by the government. They are, however, insisting to be referred to as ‘flood victims’.

“We have heard that the flood water has reached Guddu barrage and some of it has slowly started entering our village as well,” claimed one resident. “We will not move to the relief camps as we have women with us so our last option is to sit on top of the bund.” If the villagers do decide to move, there is a tent city set up by the government merely one kilometre away. “We did force around 4,000 villages on the riverbed to evacuate but all of them went to live with relatives in other areas,” said Kandhkot’s mukhtiarkar Ali Nawaz Kolachi. Medical staff, veterinary doctors, and well-equipped ambulances are available at the camps, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2014.