On the morning of 24 August 2022, the phone rang, my mother told me with despair in her voice, ‘The
whole house has collapsed due to monsoon rains, just get yourself out safely, everything else is destroyed, come quickly and move the family to the city.’ Hearing those words, I was numb for a few minutes, my mother kept saying repeatedly ‘Are you listening? Come
quickly and move us to a safe place.’
I couldn’t understand how I could possibly travel 5 hours from Hyderabad to Kambar Shahdadkot on such short notice. I soon caught the bus and left for my village.
Terrible news was emerging from all over. I was unable to cope up with the horrific situation that had transpired. At that time, it wasn’t the flood water but monsoon rains that had caused much destruction in my village. Houses collapsed and people were forced to leave the village. The impending news of floods coming in as well, swept my mind.
A long series of such thoughts stayed with me whilst I was on the bus; I was left restless. As soon as I reached the village, and saw my house in shambles, I felt my soul crushed. Memories of the house in which I spent my childhood played.
I painstakingly bid farewell to my home where I spent the majority of my life, the house where I used to play with my siblings, the house with which I associated unsurmountable happiness, was gone. This story is not just mine but of all those whose homes were destroyed by the monsoon rains and floods last year.
My village is in Qamber Shahdadkot district of Sindh province. Qamber Shahdadkot is the most flood-affected district in Sindh along with Dadu.
I started reporting the disastrous floods from the Larkana district. Larkana is the hometown of the Bhutto family. During floods, millions of homeless people were stuck on the roads. A few residential camps were set up in Larkana city, but there were no facilities for those who had been living in makeshift shelters on the roads, for several days. The difficulties of the flood victims increased as a result. People suffered from several illnesses while longing for bread and butter. The cries and miseries of the flood affectees went unheard for a long period.
The ration provided was insufficient, not even lasting a week. Some political and social organisations rose to the occasion and started relief campaigns, but they couldn’t cater to the entirety of the population due to limited resources.
When I spoke to the locals, they complained about voting for politicians who didn’t pay heed to their problems and the calamity they were stricken with. The flood victims while losing all they had, reached cities with much travesty, on their own. But they found themselves bereft of accommodation, food, or medicine.
Government’s assistance was restricted to dropping sacks of rice from helicopters. Visuals of people running to grab their share were witnessed. This is one of the examples of utmost negligence from the government’s end as well as the humiliation thwarted out to the villagers. People sitting in the hope of government assistance would fight over a sack. In other instances, trucks would drop sacks in urban areas largely occupied by the flood victims. The number of bags would be, at times, as outrageously miniscule as 50.
Subhaan, 45, lived in a mud house all his life which he had built it with hard work, day in and day out. He said, ‘Life has gone back to how it began. Now, I need another life to build a new house. I have nothing left but four children and a wife.’
This story is the story of a flood-affected labourer in Sindh. Despite government’s claim, his house has not been built yet. This is also the story of almost everyone residing in the areas that I covered as a reporter.
A few months ago, the government surveyed houses that were under construction; not much progress had been made. One of the affected areas is Faridabad, which is near the border of Balochistan, in the midst of the Larkana and Dadu districts. I accompanied the political workers of the Awami Workers Party (AWP) and Women Democratic Front (WDF) who were visiting Faridabad to set up a relief camp. It took us two hours to reach Faridabad after leaving Dadu’s Tehsil Mehar, by boat. We could only see water
everywhere. All villages had been submerged in water.
We could not hold back our tears after witnessing this. When I saw their houses, villages, and crops destroyed. The pain I felt after seeing my home in ruins, appeared small in front of the horror at display. When after four months the flood water receded a bit, winter arrived, and this doubled the hardships – flood victims deprived of warm clothes to protect them from the harsh weather. People are now returning to their damaged homes albeit penniless.
The government stands accountable for the current catastrophe at hand. The rehabilitation and reconstruction process is running at snail’s pace while people live in misery and without much solace.
Even though, the water has receded from many areas, there are still a few areas underwater; even after 7 months, the situation is the same.
Verily this is not just a personal loss for me, but a collective one.
The writer is a Sindh-based multimedia journalist.
Floods 2022: A Reporter’s Diary
On the morning of 24 August 2022, the phone rang, my mother told me with despair in her voice, ‘The
whole house has collapsed due to monsoon rains, just get yourself out safely, everything else is destroyed, come quickly and move the family to the city.’ Hearing those words, I was numb for a few minutes, my mother kept saying repeatedly ‘Are you listening? Come
quickly and move us to a safe place.’
I couldn’t understand how I could possibly travel 5 hours from Hyderabad to Kambar Shahdadkot on such short notice. I soon caught the bus and left for my village.
Terrible news was emerging from all over. I was unable to cope up with the horrific situation that had transpired. At that time, it wasn’t the flood water but monsoon rains that had caused much destruction in my village. Houses collapsed and people were forced to leave the village. The impending news of floods coming in as well, swept my mind.
A long series of such thoughts stayed with me whilst I was on the bus; I was left restless. As soon as I reached the village, and saw my house in shambles, I felt my soul crushed. Memories of the house in which I spent my childhood played.
I painstakingly bid farewell to my home where I spent the majority of my life, the house where I used to play with my siblings, the house with which I associated unsurmountable happiness, was gone. This story is not just mine but of all those whose homes were destroyed by the monsoon rains and floods last year.
My village is in Qamber Shahdadkot district of Sindh province. Qamber Shahdadkot is the most flood-affected district in Sindh along with Dadu.
I started reporting the disastrous floods from the Larkana district. Larkana is the hometown of the Bhutto family. During floods, millions of homeless people were stuck on the roads. A few residential camps were set up in Larkana city, but there were no facilities for those who had been living in makeshift shelters on the roads, for several days. The difficulties of the flood victims increased as a result. People suffered from several illnesses while longing for bread and butter. The cries and miseries of the flood affectees went unheard for a long period.
The ration provided was insufficient, not even lasting a week. Some political and social organisations rose to the occasion and started relief campaigns, but they couldn’t cater to the entirety of the population due to limited resources.
When I spoke to the locals, they complained about voting for politicians who didn’t pay heed to their problems and the calamity they were stricken with. The flood victims while losing all they had, reached cities with much travesty, on their own. But they found themselves bereft of accommodation, food, or medicine.
Government’s assistance was restricted to dropping sacks of rice from helicopters. Visuals of people running to grab their share were witnessed. This is one of the examples of utmost negligence from the government’s end as well as the humiliation thwarted out to the villagers. People sitting in the hope of government assistance would fight over a sack. In other instances, trucks would drop sacks in urban areas largely occupied by the flood victims. The number of bags would be, at times, as outrageously miniscule as 50.
Subhaan, 45, lived in a mud house all his life which he had built it with hard work, day in and day out. He said, ‘Life has gone back to how it began. Now, I need another life to build a new house. I have nothing left but four children and a wife.’
This story is the story of a flood-affected labourer in Sindh. Despite government’s claim, his house has not been built yet. This is also the story of almost everyone residing in the areas that I covered as a reporter.
A few months ago, the government surveyed houses that were under construction; not much progress had been made. One of the affected areas is Faridabad, which is near the border of Balochistan, in the midst of the Larkana and Dadu districts. I accompanied the political workers of the Awami Workers Party (AWP) and Women Democratic Front (WDF) who were visiting Faridabad to set up a relief camp. It took us two hours to reach Faridabad after leaving Dadu’s Tehsil Mehar, by boat. We could only see water
everywhere. All villages had been submerged in water.
We could not hold back our tears after witnessing this. When I saw their houses, villages, and crops destroyed. The pain I felt after seeing my home in ruins, appeared small in front of the horror at display. When after four months the flood water receded a bit, winter arrived, and this doubled the hardships – flood victims deprived of warm clothes to protect them from the harsh weather. People are now returning to their damaged homes albeit penniless.
The government stands accountable for the current catastrophe at hand. The rehabilitation and reconstruction process is running at snail’s pace while people live in misery and without much solace.
Even though, the water has receded from many areas, there are still a few areas underwater; even after 7 months, the situation is the same.
Verily this is not just a personal loss for me, but a collective one.
The writer is a Sindh-based multimedia journalist.
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