CHINIOT: We took lightly warning announcements by the district administration to vacate the village as the previous floods had inflicted no major damage on our area. But when the super flood hit our village, we could not find a place to go to. We climbed to rooftops from where boats and helicopters rescued us.

This was said by Ahmad Ali, a 70-year-old resident of Thatta Shashu village on the bank of the Chenab. He said he had not witnessed such a devastating flood in his life; even the flood of 1972 was not this massive.

“My two-room house has collapsed and now we are left under the open sky,” he added.

This correspondent visited the most-affected village of Union Council 11 Hersa Sheikh, located some 100 yards from the Chenab. A large number of villagers were desperately waiting for help. But even after the passage of about 10 days, no one reached to provide them food or other items of daily use despite tall claims of the district administration about giving cooked food and hampers of dry ration.

In this village, each person is affected by the flood; houses, cattle, valuables, crops, green fodder all lost.

When the 841,000-cusec flood hit this village, its residents were rescued by Rescue 1122 personnel through army helicopters and boats. But when water receded and the villagers returned to their homes, they found everything washed away.

Arif was the only shopkeeper in the village whose shop had faced the most damage from the floods and its roof caved in.

Floodwater had been drained out from houses but not crops, which were becoming a source of various diseases. The villagers are forced to get their grocery and green fodder from the city, which was 16km from here.

Arif said he wanted interest-free loan (Qarz-i-hasna) to restart his general store and no other form of help or charity.

Akbar Ali, a villager, negated claims of the administration and army helicopters for providing food to every village. He insisted that nobody had visited their village for 10 days to provide relief.

Zareena, a housewife, said the poor would not get anything and all relief items would be devoured by senior officers. Sunday’s rain added to their woes as they had nowhere to go for shelter. She said contradictory to the administration’s claims, no mosquito net or tent had been provided in the village. Food items had been distributed in villages near relief camps and those deserving were still deprived, she added.

Villagers said army helicopters were repeatedly dropping ration packets in selected villages. Even though depression prevailed in most of the village, there were some signs of hope.

Husnain, a student, said he had lost his schoolbag in the flood and his teacher had promised to provide him new books.

A milkman had resumed visiting the village to purchase milk from livestock dealers. A woman was seen washing clothes in floodwater on a roadside, while a rickshaw driver has also resumed picking up passengers.

MPA Maulana Ilyas Chinioti was the first person to visit the village on Monday with dry food, linen and clothes. Talking to this correspondent, he said the government would take care of each flood victim and he would send the district administration here for assistance.

The district coordination officer was not available for comment.

District administration’s spokesman Umar Hayat claimed over 17,000 packets of cooked food and 12,000 dry food hampers were sent daily to all affected villages. He also said 2,000 tents and 2,000 mosquito nets had so far been distributed to the victims and relief activities were ongoing.

Published in Dawn, September 16th , 2014