Various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been continuing to have 'photo sessions' by distributing relief goods among a number of flood victims, who have taken refuge in relief camps set up in the provincial metropolis. These organisations are avoiding to visit the flood-hit areas of Jaffarabad, Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi where over one million flood survivors are deprived of food, clean drinking water, medicines and tents.
On Friday, leading newspapers published from Quetta were filled with photographs in which representatives of different NGOs were being showed to distribute relief goods amongst few flood survivors in the city ahead of Eid. Hundreds of NGOs, getting financial aid from foreign donors, have established their offices in rented luxury bungalows in the city with luxury vehicles. Only two to three NGOs are helping flood-stricken people in relief camps of Dera Murad Jamali and Sibi.
Meanwhile, 10 more flood victims mostly children died of gastro-enteritis in Dera Murad Jamali and Sibi on Wednesday and Thursday, raising the death toll due to waterborne diseases in eastern Balochistan to over 100. Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki who recently held a meeting in Quetta, was informed that hundreds of thousands of flood-stricken people infected with waterborne diseases were deprived of proper medical treatment due to acute shortage of medicines at the hospitals and medical camps while shortage of doctors had also increased their miseries. The meeting demanded that authorities should ensure provision of dry ration to flood victim families as what they said cooked food meet their need for only one day against the dry ration which could save them from hunger and starvation for next one to two months.
Well-reputed sources in the district administration Jaffarabad told the newsmen that still no access could be made to over 15,000 people trapped in standing floodwaters in Chittan Pati and other adjoining areas. Dera Allahyar, Suhbatpur, Gandakha and parts of Jhal Magsi are still under water by four to seven feet and no practical arrangements have been made to drain out the water.