This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center
After several attempts, Zamir Ali, his son and his brother were finally raised on on deck of wooden boat.
Early morning exhausted 48-year- the old one wade through out of his home with his relatives next to city of Khairpur Nathan Shah in Pakistan’s Sindh Province to look out for for their livestock. When the water around them became deeper, they had to swim. for six hours, using bamboo stick for support and got tired quickly.
“We spent on to the electric tower and waited for somebody helpAli said from the side of the boat. “We screamed our hearts out for help … When not one stopped to help, I felt that we die”.
This area of Dadu district in Sindh is indistinguishable from a lake, with the water extends as far as the eye can see. His house, like hundreds of thousands of at home in in the area was flooded.
From 5% to 10% of in cityx population of 350,000 still stuck in they were flooded homes. Those who you can travel by boat. Others swim in in flood water with stick to get around. Waste water and flood the waters mixed to a dirty green color. Interview with local people painted a picture of catastrophe on scale, which government and NGOs failed to cope with.
Heavy monsoon rains have begun in mid-June devastated a lot of country, washing away bridges, roads, livestock and people. One third of pakistan underwater, more than 1250 people were killed and more than 35 million people are under the influence in a little way.
Dadu and neighboring Kambar-Shahdadkot are the most affected areas. in the province of Sindh, in itself the worst hit province. Flood water floods the roads for miles, making many cities inaccessible. displaced people live in tents and impromptu homes on roadsides.
Yes common mourn in I’ll give that violation of Lake Manchar, the largest freshwater lake in the country, on The water level will drop on Sunday in area should happened a few days ago and for divert water from Dadu to the lake, and from there to the sea.
When the boat that saved Ali approached main bazaar in Khairpur Nathan Shah, Khalid Hussain – young human with bamboo stick in hand and his things on his head came up and started talking. He said there were no evacuation points. for poor people and no help.
“Yesterday together with my sick father we were standing in this is corner of in city for three hours but salvation team not help my father or give him with nothing,” he said. “We had to rent a boat and send mine father to the nearest hospital for treatment. Whole city drowned with people inside their houses. Not one from government came to help us”.
Another local resident, Khadim Hussain, said authorities were “looking into us like insects.” “We are stuck. We have lost all our things. We need food, medicine and help,” he said.
Faisal Edhi, head of Edhi foundation charity, said that despite great to deal with of an effort made through foundation, government and other NGOs, they collectively managed to achieve just 10% or less of affected people. “People who survived floods can die of starvation,” he warned.
Many cities were inaccessible and the Indus highway flooded.
Saifulla Chandio, doctor student said she tried set up a first relief camp help people suffered from water-borne diseases but could not access financial support and medicines. We will see another crisis soon as people get sick,” Chandio said.
An hour from Khairpur, Nathan Shah, the boat approached the Superio embankment, where more than 2000 people from the flooded village of Nurang Chandio took cover.
Allah Baksh Chandio (no relation of Saifulla Chandio) said that the villagers fled in pitch darkness on night of August 28, carrying what little they could carry. on their shoulders. Some had food, but most didn’t.
“I felt like my heart was about to explode,” Chandio said. “All I could hear was people crying out of helplessness. children had no idea what was going on and were also crying.”
Manzoor Ali, also from Nurang Chandyo, the villagers said built tents and makeshift houses on them. “We are running out of food, he said. “We eat once a day. My daughter, who is just two years old, he has an intermittent fever, and there are no medical facilities here.”
holding her son next to her, Ghulam-e-Kubra said: “There is nothing for us. Children are sick, and we are helpless. We do not have clean drinking water, food and medicine. we are not know what to do with our lives.”
When the boat driver said it was time to leave, Ali Baksh, the farmer, came up and pointed with his fingers at flood water where harvest of rice and the wheat was grown, but was buried and washed away.
“It hasn’t rained for months back and there was a severe shortage of water for harvest,” he said. “We prayed for rain. But when it started to rain we became homeless and our harvest destroyed. we have nothing left”.