MUZAFFARGARH: The flood victims who were living in relief camps had been sent to their hometowns on Thursday with each family accompanying with three food hampers and a tent.

District Coordination Officer Hafiz Shaukat Ali said about 23,000 flood victims had been registered in 34 relief camps where they lived for about two weeks.

Sources said the officials asked the flood victims to leave relief camps after Rs100 million flood budget given by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had finished.

Most of flood victims complained that three food hampers and a tent for each family was not enough and the government should provide them more relief goods because their homes had been swept away.

DOC Kareem Bakhsh said the district government would start relief activities in the first phase on Monday (tomorrow) and till Oct 3 some 87,000 flood victims would get Rs25,000 each. He said later the relief teams would start a survey of damaged crops for delivering compensation to the affected farmers.

The DOC said the government was planning to distribute meat to flood victims on Eidul Azha.

An NGO, Doaba Foundation, provided help to flood victims in relief camps. It also carried out evacuation operation in 14 union councils and shifted thousands of people to safer places.

The foundation will start distributing non-food items and health and hygiene kits among the flood-hit families with the support of Oxfame and WHH.

Importance of CNIC

The quick grab of his hubble-bubble and the computerised national identity card were the two most precious things in the world for 65-year-old Haq Nawaz at trying moments when flood water entered his house in Basti Baseerwala on Sept 13 night.

At least 400 mud houses in the village were swept away when floodwater caused a breach in spur No 3, some five kilometres from the city area.

Haq Nawaz, one of the flood victims living along with his family in a relief camp, said the hubble-bubble was his companion and he could not live without it.

When asked what other things he could save, Nawaz said: “The second thing I considered important was my CNIC. I looked for the CNIC and safely kept it in my pocket as I knew it was the only way to get a Watan Card and other compensation from the government.”

He said he brought only these two important things with him and now he heard that his mud house had been swept away by the floodwater.

Some other villagers said they had heard about the approaching flood but they had no means to shift everything to safe places from their homes.Amid tears in their eyes, they were forced to leave their houses with few necessary articles, they said.

Nasir, a sixth class student, said he managed to bring his schoolbag, but he forgot to keep the homework he had done for the summer vacation.

Ghulam Ali, a young man, said he was able to bring his three cows with him and he would sell them in the Multan market to earn some profit.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2014