ACT Alliance

Safia expects it will be two or three years before life returns to what it was before last year's floods.
Photo: ACT/ICCO/Saskia Bolt

By Saskia Bolt, ICCO

The large population of Sindh province meant it was worst-hit by last July's floods. It is drier, hotter and sandier than the north of the country. It is a landscape of camels, horses, donkeys, cows and bicycle-riders. Landlords rule over this part of the country. Around 90 percent of poor people work for landlords, and depend on them for almost everything. In the small village of Sadiq Kalhoro, the oil drums, used by some villagers as small boats to get to higher land, are still there.

Safia, 28, is a widow with four children. Two years ago she lost her husband to typhoid fever, no surprise seeing the quality of water in the region. When the floods came on August 15, the family managed to reach the nearest paved road with the help of government boats. There they were stuck for a month and a half. The children were frightened and sick, with some refusing to eat. The mothers had to be on the alert constantly to the dangers of traffic.

Safia describes the situation as painful and uncomfortable. People were separated from each other, lost loved ones and just waited and waited in the burning hot sun without any shelter. They drank water from the river. The government supplied them with rice.

After enduring this long wait, the water lowered in the village and they all went back. But when they arrived, they found their house was gone. Since then, Safia and her family have lived together with her brother-in-law and his family.

She doesn’t like this, saying he already has enough responsibilities taking care of his own family. In order to lighten his load, she goes and lives with other family members once in a while.

Only her son attends school. Girls can’t go to the only school, which is 16km away, as the only teacher is a man and he tries to keep a class of about 300 boys under control.

Two weeks after returning to her village, she received rice, flour, sugar, oil and a hygiene kit from ACT Alliance member ICCO.

Safia also works for a landlord. Until August 15, she would go to work her little piece of land each day, a 45 minute walk from home. Some of the children would help her there. Safia is allowed to keep 20% of her produce. But now, nothing of her crops remain. The land cannot be worked, there are no seeds. In addition, the landlords’ land was stricken.

Safia’s two youngest children lean against her, sickly and snivelling. Many children are ill, she says. Her daughter has a continuous fever. “It will certainly take at least two to three years before things will get better,” she says.