More than 400,000 affected by the flood, says CM’s advisor

SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD:

Around 414,000 people living in the katcha [riverine] area have been affected by the flood throughout Sindh. The provincial government is doing its best to mitigate their suffering by providing tents, dry ration and cooked food, medical facilities, solar lamps and others.

The adviser to Sindh chief minister on relief, Ali Hassan Hingorjo, said this while addressing a joint press conference with Pakistan Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) director-general Salman Shah and MNA Nauman Islam Shaikh at Sukkur House on Tuesday night.

"I am personally visiting the affected katcha areas to ensure the evacuation," he said. "Our priority is to save lives and it is good that not a single casualty has been reported." According to Hingorjo, most of the people living in the katcha areas have been rescued by the district administrations with the help of the Army and Navy, but some people are unwilling to relocate.

Shah said that 258 tent cities have been established throughout the province, where the registered people are being provided dry rations, cooked food and other facilities. "In Sukkur, 10,000 affected people have been provided 200 tents and ration," he said. "As there is no electricity in the tent cities, we have also provided solar lamps."

According to him, after the passage of the recent flash flood, another flash flood carrying around 720,000 cusecs water is expected to pass through Guddu barrage on August 7. "Earlier, we were short on life jackets and boats," he said. "But now we have provided 170 boats to the Army and Navy for the rescue operation. Besides this, 46 boats have been provided to the districts."



Meanwhile, Shaikh spoke of the efforts of the Sindh government during the 2010 super flood. He said that the entire locality of Katcha Bunder was submerged and the government provided them Rs700 million as compensation. "An amount of Rs300 million was allocated for the reconstruction and raising of the Bunder Wall," he said. "The work on Bunder wall has been completed and if there are any flaws in the construction work, the contractor will address them."

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government has always been criticised despite its development works. Speaking about the complaints of massive corruption in the work on embankments, he said that the chief minister has already taken notice of the complaints and ordered an inquiry into it. "During the super flood of 2010, the jiyalas of the PPP provided 1,000 cauldrons of cooked food to the marooned people on a daily basis on their own," he said. "This should be appreciated."

Kotri barrage

A medium flood of 383,398 cusecs was recorded at the Kotri Barrage on Wednesday, showing an addition of around 50,000 cusecs of water in 24 hours at the barrage. The PDMA issued warning for evacuation of the people from all the villages in the katcha [riverine] areas in Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts on Tuesday. The population of the katcha dwellers in Hyderabad division’s six out of nine districts is estimated to be between 270,000 and 300,000. River Indus passes through Dadu, Jamshoro, Matiari, Hyderabad, Thatta and Sujawal districts. The Hyderabad commissioner could not be contacted for the number of displaced people in the division and relief camps established for their shelter.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.