SUKKUR: Speakers at a seminar on a post-flood consultation said women, children and elderly are getting sick due to cold weather in flood relief camps.
Malaria is spreading like epidemic in the camps. In every family there are two or three members who are affected. The life has become very difficult for families as still flood water has not receded in the farms where peasants work to provide two times food to her children.
National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Sindh and The Knowledge Forum (TKF) organized the consultation at a local hotel in Sukkur on Wednesday. The consultation was chaired by Chandan Malhi, coordinator NCHR and Naghma Iqtidar, co-director TKF.
In his opening remarks coordinator NCHR Chandan Malhi said that the purpose of this consultation is to identity the challenges being faced by the vulnerable communities in Sukkur and its surrounding districts. He further said that the purpose of the meeting is to forward recommendations to Sindh and federal governments and inform them about the challenges the vulnerable communities have faced so far in the flood relief efforts.
The participants of the consultation were from civil society, government officials, NGOs, and different marginalized communities from Sukkur and surrounding districts. Noted names from civil society included Ehsan Khan from IOM, Javed Solangi, Abdul Jabbar and Anwar Mehar and Shazia from Nari foundation.
The participants said that in Sindh there were also floods in past but they have not seen floods of this scale in their lifetime but what has been most disappointing is the response from government which has been very slow. In the affected areas nothing is left; schools, houses hospitals and roads have been washed away.
One of the participants said that peasants who work at the farms of the land owners live in mud house and are the poorest and were hit hardest and they are the ones who are being neglected in relief and rehabilitation efforts.
The members from civil society said that the amount being given to each family is meagre which won’t be enough to construct one side boundary of a room how come would it be enough to repair or build new homes which have been badly damaged.
One of the participants said that the camps have become non livable due to widespread diseases and people are suffering psychologically as they have also lost their only means of livelihood which was farming or working at the farms of the landowners.
Another participant said that government doesn’t have any proper and updated mechanism for distributing relief. In several instances, the worst affectees have been left out because of the non-availability of data. In many cases the relief has gone to those people who don’t need or have already received relief.
Sehrish Abbasi, a local journalist, said that she has seen doomsday situation at camps where girls and women are facing harassment at ration distribution centers and due to lack of toilets they have to wait until night. She further said that women and girls are depressed due to being locked up in the tents in most of the time. At the start the response was quick but gradually they affectees are being forgotten by media as well.
In the closing remarks, Chandan Malhi coordinator NCHR thanked the participants for their input and said the at the end of the series of consultations across Sindh, the recommendations given by the participants would be presented to stakeholders who are overseeing relief and rehabilitation efforts in Sindh.