ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Nafisa Shah on Saturday shared a video of men wading through deep flood water in district Khairpur’s Talpur Wada area in Sindh province.
Nafisa urged the concerned authorities to allow the water to be drained out to Indus River from surrounding areas and stated that people kept asking her why nothing was being done.
In another tweet, the PPP leader said that Pakistan was bearing the burden of the richer and prosperous world in facing climate catastrophe which has entered every home here.
“The world must rise to the occasion and announce our debt retirement. It’s a fair demand,” she wrote.
Unprecedented monsoon downpours flooded a third of the country — an area the size of the United Kingdom — killing nearly 1,600 people and displacing more than seven million.
The UNHCR said an estimated 16 million children have been impacted, and at least 3.4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, lifesaving support.
The country received 391 mm (15.4 inches) of rain, or some 190% more than the 30-year average through July and August, a monsoon spell that started early and stretched beyond the usual timeline. Rainfall in Sindh shot up to 466% of the average.
The Express Tribune earlier reported that the allegedly inadequate supply of the relief items and the perceived delay in draining water out of submerged areas have been provoking protests across the province.
People are venting their anger against the government with protests taking place in all the disaster-hit districts.
“People here are starving,” claims Talib Siyal, who led a protest in Padedan town of Naushehro Feroze, the district that received the highest rainfall in the province. “We have been living in this situation for one and a half months but no government functionary has reached out to us with proper aid.”
The protesters said sometimes ration and Biryani are distributed but only to those who are close to area’s influential people.
The residents of the flooded villages of Johi town of Dadu district complained at a protest that they have been marooned at their homes for the last three weeks but the government has not even bothered to send teams to check how many people are staying in submerged villages.
“We tried to contact Mukhtiarkar and assistant commissioner but no one has come so far,” claimed Yousuf Mugheri.
He and other protesters said the only way to receive some aid is to bow down before the local feudal lords.
In Bhiria city area of Naushehro Feroze, the protesters, chanting slogans against the district administration and the provincial government, said almost a month has passed since it last rained but their neighbourhoods are still under water. They said the stagnant water is spreading malaria, gastro and other diseases.
