KARACHI - Mithi, district headquarter of the drought-hit desert district of Tharparkar, is facing wheat flour shortage since last week which resulted in price hike of this essential commodity.
Reports reaching from Mithi revealed that the Sindh Food Department has stopped supplying wheat to ‘flour chakkis’ of Mithi as the quota allocated for the desert headquarter was sold to flour mills of Karachi on credit which created shortage of flour. Keeping in view of the shortage, shopkeepers and traders have exploited the situation and increased Rs50 per 40-kg of flour.
Senior journalist of Mithi, Khatau Jani said 2,000 wheat bags were daily required for 15 flour ‘chakkis’ of Mithi which has a population of 0.1 million souls. Mithi is also catering to the need of adjoining villages which has no electricity. Wheat was transported to Mithi from the godowns of Diplo and Islamkot talukas for the last one month but now that wheat stock in these two talukas has also exhausted, the food department has yet to restore wheat supply which resulted in shortage. He said last year, government had distributed 50-kg of wheat per family for three months after the district was declared as calamity hit area. But this year, government has not declared Tharparkar as drought-hit so far despite the reports from the local administration.
On the other hand with the death of four more children on Sunday, the death toll in Tharparkar reached 191 since January.
Reports said two newborn babies died in a village of taluka Diplo while one each died in Mithi and Islamkot. In Islamkot taluka also, one Ms Kamla, wife of Daulat Meghwar, died along with her newborn baby in her womb due to lack of healthcare facility. According to health department, 16 newborn babies died in the two weeks of February while 85 children were referred to Hyderabad hospitals.
Tharparkar region, one of the most neglected areas of the country, was facing drought spanning on four years which is taking the toll on women, children and elderly people but Sindh government is in a state of denial.
Meanwhile, the number of population with “No food stock” in Tharparkar has decreased from 76 per cent in March 2014 to 64.8 per cent in January 2016.
According to a statement, the data has been collected by the Health and Nutrition Development Society (Hands), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). The objective of the study was to assess the current situation and state of drought-affected communities in Tharparkar. Hands Chief Executive Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed said, “Current study indicates that food stock has increased for more than one month as compare to March 2014 position.
The data has been collected by using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. At least 88 affected villages were randomly selected in four talukas of Tharparkar. During the data collecting process 704 male and 698 female were the key informants.” Currently, the NGO is focusing on 20 Union Councils of Tharparkar under the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) project. The food stock position has improved and the number of population with “No food stock” has decreased. In March 2014, there were 315 villages where basic health facilities were available out of those 67.9 per cent were functional and 32.1 per cent were not functional.