Out of sight, out of mind

End of VVIP visits to flood affected areas halts distribution of rations, relief goods

SUKKUR:

With the flood almost over and the waterlevels falling below the 400,000 cusec mark at the Guddu and Sukkur barrages, people in the relief camps have been left unattended and are being forced to make arrangements of their own.

Thousands of houses in the katcha areas have been damaged due to the wrath of the Indus River and reports speak of people leaving the relief camps to return to their villages in order to put their homes back together.

Read: Flood relief camps established in upper Sindh

Following the very high flood at the Guddu and Sukkur barrages, the district administrations, with the help of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, had established relief and medical camps at the protective embankments. During the peak flood VVIP visits to the affected areas and barrages were frequent, resulting in the flood victims receiving proper care, including cooked food or dry ration, tents and medical facilities for themselves and their livestock.

Ghulam Ali Ogahi, a resident of the Jam Sonharo village near Kandhkot, told the media that, in the initial stage, they received cooked food and dry ration at the relief camps, but after the water receded in the River Indus, no one seemed interested in their problems. He claimed that the dry ration bags are being distributed among those who never belonged to the katcha area.



The PDMA director-general, Salman Shah, refuted the villagers' claims. He said that 7,000 bags of dry ration have been given to the district administrations of Kashmore-Kandhkot and Ghotki each, while 1,000 bags of rations have been sent to district Khairpur. "Now it is upon the district administrations to distribute it among the flood affected people," he said.

The deputy commissioner Kashmore-Kandhkot, Dr Hafeez Sial, pointed out that as the waterlevel has receded and the majority of the flood affected people have left the camps, therefore distribution of rations has been stopped. The deputy commissioner Ghotki, Tahir Watto, was not available for comments.

Read: Relief and rehabilitation: ‘Flood-affected families are govt’s guests’

Reports from Kashmore-Kandhkot district speak of the ineptitude and dismissive attitude of the district administration from day one. Though relief camps were established on the protective embankments and some displaced residents of the katcha had taken shelter there, nobody took care of them, except during the VVIP visits. Now, the displaced persons are waiting for the waterlevel to recede further so that they can move back to their villages and rebuild their damaged houses. Similar reports have been received from other districts of upper Sindh including Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2015.