Drowning in more than just flood water

floods

A group of 10-15 women, some of them holding sticks in one hand and cradling babies in the other, blocked the road off Badin because they had not received any help for five days. They were very angry as they had been sitting in the rain under the open sky with their children and no aid had come.

“We have walked all the way from the Badin bypass. Our children haven’t eaten in five days. Now we won’t let anyone pass until someone comes and listens to us. We are hungry, homeless, and have nowhere to go. No one cares.” The angry young woman said while waving her stick around.

“How would you react,” said an elderly woman who looked like the leader of the protest, “if you were given a fistful of rice for you and your children? What will one fist of rice do? Aren’t we humans? Should we let our children die? Our homes are waist-deep in water and we cannot live there.”

Torrential rains and extreme flooding have killed more than 1,100 people in Pakistan since mid-June. Nearly 400 of those who have died were children and millions of people have been displaced by the flooding. This monsoon season is one of the worst in over a decade and the ‘climate catastrophe’ could leave up to a third of the country under floodwaters by its end. Pakistan has been facing natural disasters almost every other year, and a system should have been set up by now to deal with it. You would think the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) would have a to-do list and a set of problems identified in different situations and how to tackle them, including the specific needs of women, but that is not the case.

Another woman named Shahida said, “Any aid that is coming is being taken away and stored in the influential houses. They keep telling us they will do a survey and after that the food will be distributed but by that time we will starve. Who is going to think about us?” We are told to take refuge in the camps, but our men are told to leave. Why are they saying this? How can I take these young women to the shelter if my sons are not allowed to come with us? We will not be secure. Go back to Karachi and tell the government that we are also human, and we need aid. We have been in this condition for five days. We are poor but we are human.” Her anger seemed justified. There were children as young as 2 with the women.

There are thousands of women all over Pakistan who are existing on the periphery of the disaster waiting for help.

Muhammad Aamir Khan, Chairman and Administration Manager of Dua Foundation, a Karachi-based NGO has been distributing aid to the flood-affected areas in Baluchistan and Sindh. He said that people were donating generously but most of the things donated were not meeting the demands of the flood-affected people. “People are sending in items that are not useful to those affected by the floods. The needs of these people are different from people living in urban areas and foreign countries.”

“I keep telling donors that we need to give flour, sugar and cooking oil, and some other dry items and tents. Tents are short in the market and the ones that are available are too expensive. I have bought material myself and got the tents made,” he added.

Donors will have to heed the suggestions of the people working on the ground, as they are aware of what things are needed by the victims.

Farzana Ali, a journalist based in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said, “We cannot determine the number of women who are affected by the flood as they are scattered in different camps all over. Tents have been set up in stadiums, schools, and other places.”

However, she added that there are instances when people who registered for tents didn’t get them, so they are forced to be outdoors with their families. “The biggest problem is women’s security. Wherever you keep them they are vulnerable. If their male guardians are with them, it is all right but there are so many strangers coming and going that it is not safe,” she shared her concern.

Farzana pointed out that women’s needs are not being considered. “Women and girls are not provided with sanitary packages which is a problem. Food is being distributed but it is not enough. Washrooms are located very far away which is dangerous,” she elucidated.

Similar stories were heard from other flood affected areas in the country. The residents of a village that was hit by flood water in Tharparkar have set up a makeshift settlement making shelters out of whatever they could find. They are situated right off the main road making them vulnerable not only to criminals but also to snakes and scorpions among other creatures.

When water entered the village, those who were lucky fled and saved their lives. They snatched whatever they could and some of them only have clothes on their backs and nothing else. “We have been living here on the side of the road since we left home a week ago,” told Sita, who is the matriarch of her family. “My daughter-in-law is eight months pregnant, and she had to walk several kilometres to this spot when the flood waters reached our village. It was coming in so fast that I literally had to drag her with me to save her and now we are not able to feed her or get any medical attention.”

“The nearest hospitals to take her in case of emergency are in Mithi and Badin. There are no hospitals nearby, only dispensaries / clinics and at this time of emergency, there will be no one present to help,” she lamented.

Farzana also highlighted, women, girls and even young children are extremely vulnerable and exposed to all kinds of people who use the chaos during calamities to prey on the victims. More than 40 families are living in a makeshift tent city, where the living situation is extremely bad as all of them are cramped into 20 tents in total. “We only have space for one charpoy, and two to three families live in each tent. We have made some other tents using scraps of plastic and cloth – but these don’t keep the rain out,” one of the women said, who had fled from her village Jio Khan.

“Our homes are 10 km from here and we walked here after the army came at midnight and told us to evacuate. No one had warned us before of the flood water and we had to rush out,” she shared, wiping her eyes. “It is difficult for us to live here in the open.”

“After the snakes came out, the men keep an eye open. They use their torches so they can see the creatures. We don’t have any washrooms and we have to use the fields. We never had to leave our homes but now we are forced to,” she explained.

“When the floods came in 2020, we had to live in tents for 3 months. We don’t know how long we will be living here,” disclosed Ghulam Rasool, a resident of Rais Abdullah Bhurbhari. “The bridge at zero point submerged when the water in the river rose. Two policemen drowned while rescuing people with their bare hands. Things are quite bad.”

The flood caused a lot of destruction as it pounded anything that came in its way. But the crisis that comes after the floods is the real tragedy.

“Right now, we are starving and waiting for help, living in makeshift tents. People, especially children are getting ill – skin problems, gastro problems and fever. Hunger is the main issue. But in many areas, standing crops have been destroyed and more will be destroyed. The problems will only increase, and the authorities need to plan ahead,” said Saleem Junejo who is a local volunteer affiliated with the NGO.

According to Junejo, the lands will be flooded for six months after the flood crisis and will be unusable for at least a year. That means we are looking at a long food crisis. “Things are extremely bad because people are resisting moving to shelters, especially those far from their homes as they want to see what is being done to reconstruct their homes, to drain their lands, and to rebuild their lives,” he elucidated.

The majority of people may be poor but they have their dignity and are not willing to relocate. What they want is to rebuild their lives in their own areas, and build a home where they have always lived.