Pakistan Flood update
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Email31.08.2010
Water has broken the bank of the Indus in the Thatta area in Southern Sindh. People have been warned by the authorities of the dangers and to move. This includes a town called Sajawal which is part of Badin parish, where Columbans have been present since 1983. Also along the same line further down the coast is the small parish of Jati, where Robert McCulloch does some of his ministry. As of yet there is no flooding in these areas but people have been asked to move from the impending danger.
Northern Sindh has also been badly affected
including the city of Sukkur and its surrounding areas, due to the
river breaking its banks and overflowing.
Hyderabad is still high risk. It is on one side of the Indus
River where water is critically high. It has been flowing with the
same level of intensity for the last 48 hours and will continue to do
so for a projected 2/3 days. Hopefully it will pass. As a precaution
schools in Hyderabad have been ordered closed. Otherwise life in the
city is continuing as normal including Latifabad side of the city where
the Columban Sisters and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital are located.
On the other side of the river from Hyderabad, low-lying areas around the towns of Kotri and Jamshora the river has overflowed and many villages have been wiped out. People have moved to high ground, including on the side of the Super Highway linking Hyderabad to Karachi. Crops and whole villages have been destroyed. This has a threefold affect:
- People, whose houses and villages have been destroyed, are landless. Bonded laborers working on the lands of landlords will not receive payment in cash or kind, if the landlords have lost their crops.
- Because of the floods the winter crops like rice have not been planted yet, so the farm workers will lose out again.
- There will be food shortage and the higher prices that result from that.
Financial support coming from Columbans, benefactors and friends is so far being used to support the Church personnel distribute emergency food and medicines to people living in the three parishes of Sukkur, Kotri and Hyderabad. This includes clean drinking water, basic food packages and mosquito nets.
It is also hoped to help and support the worst affected area in the North West of the country coming under Islamabad/Rawalpindi diocese. The aid distribution there is controlled by the military. The Presentation Sisters, who have a presence in many parishes there, have not been able to get involved as yet. They will help in the rehabilitation and reconstruction later.
So, basically, the money sent is and will continue to be used for two basic purposes:
- Immediate emergency relief.
- Rehabilitation and reconstruction of lives, of houses and of livelihoods once the flood waters have subsided.
The reconstruction necessary will be massive. It will involve responses such as building houses and villages, buying animals to get people started again.
Finally, sincere thanks for the kindness and generosity of all people who have donated financial help in this time of great need and emergency.
Especially thanks to Ruairi (6) and Finn McCarrick (8), Fr Tommy O’Hanlons’ two grandnephews, for their collection sent to us here in Pakistan.
Fr Tomas King SSC has been a missionary in Pakistan since 1992.
Photo credits Fr Charles Meagher
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