Abrar Qazi, convenor Sindh Democratic Forum (SDF), Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, Chairman Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Abdul Majeed Nizamani president Sindh Abadgar Board jointly condemned the federal and provincial governments of criminally underestimating the scale of the disaster and provision of very inadequate relief to the affected people due to mega disaster in Sindh and Balochistan provinces due to flash floods.
In a statement they said that according to the National Disaster Management Authority's (NDMA) press release issued on 13-July-07 about 1,400 villages have been flooded in Sindh but independent sources and media reports that more number of villages has been affected. There is a complete collapse of protective structures against the flood in Dadu and Qambar-Shahdadkot district. Reports from reliable sources has said that more than 50 villages have been destroyed by the flood water.
In this emergency situation the government of Sindh and management is hardly seen to rescue the people or to minimise the losses in the flood affected areas. It should have pressed the federal government to appeal to international donors to get funds to help the affected people but except statements and few relief measures, large number of the people are left at the mercy of the nature.
Till today more than 30 people in Sindh have lost their lives, hundreds of people are suffering from gastro, skin diseases, diarrhoea vomiting and other diseases but they are unable to get treatment. It is feared that more people particularly women and children would die because of hunger, lack of clean drinking water, sanitation, treatment and other factors.
The poor people have taken shelter on roads embankments of irrigation channels and drains and open spaces and whatever aid is coming, it is arriving late in a haphazard way and only at the location nearest to the towns but the large number of the people trapped in farthest places are still waiting for aid. The affected people have lost their houses, assets, livestock and crops except having few useable things.
They have nothing to eat, wear and protect themselves. It is estimated that crops cultivated on 300,000 to 500,000 acres have been destroyed and if water is not disposed off soon, the landowners will have to wait till next year to cultivate these affected lands. Despite the media and NGO assessment and appeals for increasing aid and its timely delivery, neither the federal government nor provincial government are realising the gravity of the situation. The situation has been further aggravated by local influential Zamindars.
They and some ministers are accused of reaching the drain and developing breaches for the sake of saving their crops without caring for the people to be affected by these breaches.
"We condemn the federal government callous response to the mega disaster in Sindh and Balochistan as it was duty bound that it should have mobilised the resources to provide the immediate relief to the affected people and appealed to the international donors for the relief and rehabilitation of more than 0.5 million flood affected people in Sindh alone.
Every minute and every hour flood affected people are living in misery and they need the government aid as they are the citizens and taxpayers and the Sindh government and federal government under oath are bound to provide them aid and other support and the government needs to drain off the flood water quickly so that people could return to their villages without any delay.
We strongly demand that a judicial commission be appointed to probe on the failure of the Sindh government and federal government on responding this mega disaster. Sindh and federal governments should appeal to the international donors to provide funds for relief to the flood affected people of Dadu, Qambar, Shadadkot Thatta and Badin districts.
The government should provide them boats and settle them temporarily on safe places until the water is receded. The government should provide food, drinking water, shelter and treatment to all the flood affected people.
A comprehensive rehabilitation plan should be prepared to help people rebuild their houses and recover their lively resources such as crop cultivation and livestock farming. An integrated irrigation and flood protection scheme should be implemented to permanently protect the Dadu and Qambar-Shadadkot districts from the effects of floodwater coming from the adjacent areas of Balochistan province.
Farmers and who have lost their crops and livestock should be adequately compensated with minimum support of Rs 50,000 per family. All revenue and irrigation taxes should be exempted. The Sindh government should establish the disaster management department to prevent disasters and provide relief and rehabilitation support to the disaster-affected people in case of minor or mega disasters in Sindh.
The Sindh government should review the design, construction and maintenance of the LBOD and RBOD so that flood disasters be prevented," the statement said. In the end they appeal to the national and international relief agencies to expedite the relief work and also appeal to the international donors to send their missions to the affected areas for rehabilitating of the affected people. They offered Fateha for the people who lost their lives in the flood in all provinces of Pakistan and express their sympathy with the bereaved families.
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