Misri Khan and his roughly 500 relatives survived what the United Nations described as the world's biggest natural disaster in modern history, but they face a bleak future. Little aid has come from the government and international community to help him rebuild what he lost in last year's floods.
He now faces the possibility of a vicious circle of debt as a bonded labourer on a farm, a common custom in the southern province of Sindh. "We could cultivate rice, but we had no money to buy seed," Khan, 35, said. "We have no money even to buy food, let alone the seed." His 5 hectares of land at Haji Siddique Jat village in Thatta was waterlogged for months after the floods submerged it last year. His seed and food reserves for the whole year were lost. "No one has come to our aid," said Khan, standing in the village of 64 mud houses. "We are surviving only with the help of Allah."
"Everything was submerged here," Khan said. "The water was as high as, I think, 12 feet [3.5 metres]. All of our houses were destroyed." But Khan and his relatives were lucky: They heard a warning on the radio on August 27, 2010, about an embankment breach. He rented a tractor and trailer to transport his family and cattle to the nearby road, then went to stay with relatives for a month.
Thatta was the last district hit by the floods caused by unusual monsoon rains in northern Pakistan in late July 2010. The rain devastated parts of the north and broke the banks of the 3,200-kilometre Indus River, causing havoc in central and southern Pakistan before flowing into the Indian Ocean. About 2,000 people were killed, and about an eighth of Pakistan's 170 million people was displaced.
According to a study by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, the already poor country suffered losses of 10 billion dollars. The flood destroyed 1.7 million houses and 2.3 million hectares of standing crops and washed away hundreds of roads and bridges. The worst affected were the most vulnerable like Khan, whose village had no electricity, no school, no health clinic and no clean water even before the floods.
When he returned in late September, he found the dwellings had crumbled and were swamped with snakes and mud. The government and international relief organisations carried out a slow but efficient relief campaign, saving tens of thousands of lives by providing food, shelter and health care. But the initial recovery programme did not go well in many areas.
The Agha Khan Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation, built temporary shelters of bamboo and plastic sheets, but they stood up to the weather for only a couple of months. There was no further assistance for Khan's village. The government promised compensation, but only 25 per cent of it reached the worst-affected people in the form of a first instalment of 20,000 Pakistani rupees (250 dollars) for each family. Even to get that money, many families had to pay bribes to officials of the National Database and Registration Authority.
"A mud house costs more than 100,000 rupees since the wood is so expensive," said Khan, who now lives in a 3.5-by-2.5-metre temporary bamboo shack with his wife, eight children and parents. "We sold our cattle to feed ourselves during the last year, but we are not able to have three meals a day," said Khan as he held his 5-month-old daughter, who looked no more than a month old because of malnutrition.
The UN said it lacks funds for its recovery programme. Yasmin Rockenfeller, deputy head of its office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, said the organisation had yet to receive about 30 percent of its requested aid of 1.9 billion dollars for relief and recovery. Perhaps, it was this unpaid money that prevented the UN from helping remote areas like Khan's village. Many in other regions were able to get seed and cultivate their land.
The lack of help for Haji Siddique Jat and 20 other villages near it leaves them at the mercy of moneylenders. "I will borrow money from a lender to cultivate land that belongs to all people in this village, but I don't know where it would lead us," Khan said. "If the crop is good, we will survive, and if it's not, we might be working at the farms of a feudal lord for many years to come." "What can I do?" he asked. "It's Allah who decides our destinies. I am grateful to him in whatever condition he keeps us."
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