Super Flood 2010. PFF Releif and Rescue work in Kashmore, Jamshoro and thatta

Flood devastation blamed on shrinking forest cover
By Our Staff Reporter
Saturday, 14 Aug, 2010

KARACHI, Aug 13: The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum on Friday observed that floods caused devastation on a massive scale because local feudal lords with the connivance of government officials and legislators of successive ruling parties had cut forests and encroached upon its land for cultivation.

Besides, the small embankments they had built in the riverbed to stop the natural flow of the Indus River and to cultivate crops resulted in the flooding of low-lying settlements along the river, observed the participants of a PFF meeting held to review the flood situation in Sindh.

While reviewing the ongoing rescue and relief work, PFF leaders and volunteers representing Karachi, Thatta, Sanghar, Dadu, Shikarpur, Kashmore and Jamshoro expressed concern over the security of civil society organisations, which had initiated relief work in the flood-affected areas.

The meeting, which was chaired by PFF chairperson Mohammad Ali Shah , observed that the situation had already become precarious with no visible check on robbers who were looting trucks loaded with relief goods on their way.

“Workers of a community-based organisation carrying relief items on a truck to Jacobabad district for distribution among flood victims were robbed,” a participant of the meeting recalled. Similarly, he said, many other robberies were going unreported and rights organisations were reluctant to move to the flood-affected areas for extending help to the people in distress.

The PFF officials said that their activists were deprived of a motorbike on their way to Jamshoro. Robberies had become common in the flood-affected areas of nine districts and people were feeling unsafe, they said, adding that criminals were on the rampage, targeting vehicles carrying food items to scattered camps. They deplored the response of district governments in this regard and said there was no security at any place.

The PFF appealed to district coordination officers to look into the matter and ensure provision of security to the organisations involved in the relief work.

Rescue work

The participants of the meeting were informed that the PFF initiated rescue work by providing 200 fishing boats to evacuate people from flood-hit Kashmore up to Jamshoro districts. The Sindh government also sent fishing boats provided by the PFF to southern Punjab to help the people there, they were informed.

The PFF in its meeting decided to set up camp offices in three regions — Sukkur, Sehwan and Thatta — to help the flood victims in Sindh.

The forum representing fishing communities also criticised those legislators who stayed away from their respective constituencies after the floods devastated a wide area and displaced thousands of families.

It was noted that such a huge displacement in Sindh and an influx of internally-displaced people to the urban centres of Sukkur, Hyderabad and other districts was unprecedented.

The PFF officials observed that the provincial governments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab had released funds for the maintenance of river embankments soon after the floods breached them. They said the Sindh government had not provided funds for the protection of embankments so far.

They also feared that certain authorities might provide justification for building dams on the Indus River upstream after the devastation caused by floods. They said they were monitoring the situation closely and would soon hold meetings with legislators to oppose any such move.
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