KARACHI: Chairman of Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Altaf Shakoor has demanded of the federal and provincial governments and the army and navy to launch an urgent drive to remove water from farmlands and villages in Sindh.
He said that for this purpose diesel-fuelled pumping machines should be urgently dispatched to the flooded areas.
He said that only a massive pumping and dewatering operation in rural farmlands of Sindh could ensure timely sowing of Rabi crops; otherwise, the nation will face a dreadful food crisis.
France, he said, had donated water pumps for a swift drainage of rainwater but no one knew where they have gone. Accumulated rainwater had brought waterborne diseases like malaria, typhoid and dengue to the affected areas.
He said malnutrition among the children of displaced families is alarming. Millions of people have lost their homes at a time when the winter season is approaching fast.
Mr Shakoor was of the opinion that no rehabilitation and reconstruction operation has yet begun in the flooded areas. The response of the international community and global lending institutions is disappointingly cold.
They have failed to respond positively to the humanitarian crisis, he said. This is only because Pakistan is a Muslim country.
He said had a similar calamity hit some non-Muslim country, the world community and international lenders would have opened their hearts and purses to rehabilitate the victims.
He said if one compares the world’s response to the 2010 earthquake of Haiti with that to the current calamity in Pakistan one can easily see the real face of Islamphobia.
The PDP chief warned that a grave food crisis is looming large over the country. Vast farmlands in Sindh are still inundated with accumulated rainwater and if wheat crop is not sown in this Rabi season, next year wheat flour would not be available even at Rs300 per kilogram.
He said that the federal and Sindh governments have shown criminal negligence in draining out rainwater from fields and farmlands and resultantly sowing of Rabi crops, especially wheat, is uncertain. He said if the government continued showing negligence in using heavy pumping machines to drain out the water they would be responsible for the potential food crisis that would be a bigger calamity than rains and floods.
Mr Shakoor said the nation is facing a donor fatigue. The NGOs and relief organisations have mostly closed down their donation collection camps and media outlets have diverted their focus away from the suffering of millions of displaced people to political melodrama of a few filthy, corrupt and untruthful politicians.
The governments and all major political parties have forgotten the flood affectees and they are busy in carrying out mudslinging instead. He said this situation shows a shameful apathy of our society towards our millions of displaced brothers and sisters.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.