A Comprehensive Failure

Authorities failed to minimize losses in the wake of floods to the detriment of common people

SUKKUR: On January 8, 2023, Harsingh Kohli, a laborer, was trampled to death by people who—like Kohli—were desperately trying to get bags of subsidized flour in Mirpurkhas district of Sindh.

The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in Sindh started to provide wheat flour through mini-trucks at a price of Rs65 per kilogramme after phenomenal rise in flour prices in the wake of a shortage of the staple food.

This wheat flour crisis emerged months after torrential monsoon rains which caused rivers and streams to overflow their banks, submerging homes, sweeping away livestock and inundating crops on a large scale—particularly in Sindh

While the floods destroyed sugarcane and cotton crops on thousands acres, they also destroyed huge quantities of wheat stored in the go-downs of the Sindh Food Department as well as the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), a company owned by the federal government.

It later transpired that despite the Met office’s prediction about rains, the food department had not taken proper precaution while storing wheat whose thousands of bags were destroyed in each of the various go-down that the department maintains in different districts of the province.

This grain-spoilage, however, was not the only loss that authorities might have averted by effective planning and timely action.

Many people in Sindh believe that if the provincial government had swung into action right after the floods and tried to drain water from the fields in the worst affected districts–like Dadu, Khairpur, Larkana, Ghotki, Shikarpur and Sukkur–a lot of farmers could have salvaged their crops.

Malik Musheer is a grower who owns 120 acres of land in Saleh Pat area of Sukkur.  He says he continually requested various government departments to pump flood water out of his fields but nobody came to his aid.

“Had the government agencies immediately conducted a survey of the areas where crops like cotton, sugarcane and rice had been affected and helped in draining the rainwater, the situation would have been different.

“The relevant government institutions, however, did not pay any attention to our requests due to which farmers lost crops and assets worth billions of rupees. Interestingly, the federal and provincial governments have also not paid any compensation to the flood victims,” he said.

Muhammad Din Jiskani is a farmer who has a 30-acre piece of land.

Jiskani also believes that if the district administration had come to their aid and helped in draining flood water from fields, he and thousands of other farmers might not have to face such huge losses.

“Many farmers tried to pump rainwater out of their fields on their own but such attempts generally failed and they had to suffer additional losses as they also had to pay for the rented pumps and diesel.

He said lists have been prepared by the government to help the affected farmers but no compensation has been paid so far.

Habibullah Mazari had moved to a flood relief camp in Rohri district along with his family after floods inundated his village and severely damaged his house in Kashmore district.

The laborer stayed in the camp in the hope of getting compensation to rebuild his house. However, he and his family decided to return to their broken house after two months as they lost all hope of getting any help from the government.

Shakir Ali, a farmer from Saleh Pat, said that the provincial government and some social welfare organizations have provided food and shelter to flood victims at the relief camps but the government has not helped them in repair and reconstruction of their houses.

“Even today, there is standing water in a number of places in Dadu, Nawabshah, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana, Qamber Shahdad Kot and other districts. The affected people are looking to the government in the hope that it will ultimately recompense for their losses,” he said.