While some parts of my home province Sindh such as Thar Desert and Kachho are praying for more rains and crying for water for drinking and other purposes, northern Sindh is drowning in it. Weeks of non-stop monsoon rains have caused rivers, canals, water channels, water courses, streams, and lakes to overflow and flash floods to destroy movable and immovable property including homes, businesses, shops, and infrastructure in Kacha area along river Indus in Kashmore, Kandh Kot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur Mirs, Larkano, Dadue and other districts in the province.
The floods cover a huge area in the province and in the last couple of days it has started to inundate the towns, villages and settlements affecting millions and this invading will continue for weeks to come because Sindh is the lower riparian which ultimately suffers in the end but unfortunately the rulers and the government machinery is nowhere visible to handle or manage the flood disaster in the affected areas. So much so even the electronic media, with the exception of a few daily newspapers and channels, are not highlighting the doom and destruction, displacement and specific needs of the ill-fated victims in Sindh province such as boats, tenets, cooked food, medicines, drinking water, mosquito nets, and fodder for livestock etc.
We are facing this every year and every year the government claim that they have ‘Disaster Management’ in hand is proved to be a bag full of lies. Is there anyone to sensitise our rulers and the media channels that humanity is more important than politics and glamorisation of violence? Let’s be more aware of the humanitarian issues and be less curious about power politics in Pakistan.
HASHIM ABRO,
Islamabad, August 20.