Floods cause further devastation in southern Pakistan

Communities in southern Pakistan, still rebuilding after last year’s floods, have been devastated by monsoon rains which began last month and have continued throughout September.

In Sindh province, over 200 people have died and 300,000 are homeless. Four and a half million acres of land, including 1.2 million homes, farmland, and relief camps in Badin, have been flooded. Crops have been lost, including an estimated 13 per cent of the cotton crop, a major source of income for the region. Link roads in the Pangrio area have been wiped out by the rains, leaving 25,000 people isolated and without any access to relief services.

Act for Peace’s partner, Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A), is responding to the emergency, providing food and non-food items, tents and blankets and mobile health services in four flood affected districts in Sindh province: Badin, Thatta, Umerkot, and Mirpurkhas.

CWS-P/A
Field workers prepare to distribute tents and blankets in Thatta, in Sindh province.

Aside from need for immediate relief assistance, the affected population is concerned for its livelihood and housing losses. A landless farmer, Mohammad Suddhir expresses this concern: “I do not have money to rebuild my house and, at present, lost our cotton crop. I do not have money and only get paid a few thousand rupees from the landlord.”

Farmer Mohammad Suddhir lost ten acres of his cotton crop and his two-room house; similar stories are heard throughout his village, Haji Ladho Khaskhelly, and the surrounding areas in Thatta.

“I do not have money to rebuild my house … only get paid a few thousand rupees from the landlord,” said Mohammad in an interview with CWS-P/A’s Donna Fernandes.
 
Karachi, already destabilised by months of ethnic, religious, and political tension, was paralysed by flooding: up to 100mm of rain has been recorded in the economic capital of the country, killing seven people and bringing the city to a standstill.