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“We lost about 75 per cent of our livestock to starvation, due to three consecutive years of drought in Achro (White) Thar, and we are afraid we will lose whatever is left, if the rains stay away,” Prem Singh says at Rabalau village, while talking to journalists who were on an exposure visit of the Sanghar District, organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler).
“The people living here depend on livestock, maize and other crops, which can only grow if there is fresh rainfall to charge the earth,” he says.
The Rabalau village is located at about a three-hour drive from Khipro city in Sanghar district. It is home to about 100 houses of the Thakur or Soda community, who have been living here since before even Partition, when they became minorities.
Sanghar district is located in the centre of Sindh, and is bounded to the east by India.
The Achro Thar is a deserted area where life depends entirely upon rainfall, the sole source of water here. Rainwater is stored in ponds and lakes, and also charge wells; that is usually enough for people and livestock for a year or until the next rainfall.
But since the last three years, a lack of rains has caused devastating droughts in the area. Water is so scarce that entire trees and bushes – some of them fodder for livestock and others consumed as vegetables by people – have disappeared.
Also read: Famine-like situation in Thar after severe drought
'Khip' is a small tree which is used to construct the upper part of the rounded-ceiling Chawanra (Room); it works as a filter, cooling down hot winds. But most of these trees have vanished due to the drought, and whatever is left, the villagers are forced to use sparingly.
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Ameer Bux Hingorijo, a resident of Asudar village (about two kilometres away from Rabalau) says he had 20 goats and five camels. Of those, 16 goats and three camels died of malnutrition, and the rest were so weak they would follow, if he didn't sell them soon (at a very low price).
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Padam Singh, resident of the Ranaho village about three kilometres away from Rabalao, says that the acute water scarcity has translated to a loss of food security, and is causing diseases among the locals, eventually causing death.
If mother nature is unkind to these unfortunate people, the state is no less.
There are no proper hospitals or dispensaries to provide treatment for people, many of them suffering from diseases like Hepatitis C and B, malaria, etc.
Men and women spend most of their day fetching water for themselves and their livestock, but because the water is short in supply, brackish, and contaminated with arsenic and fluoride, all of them are suffering from waterborne diseases.
Also see: Poverty causing people to kill themselves in drought-hit Thar
The locals, exhausted from repeatedly asking for the government's support, are being silenced by sickness and death. According to them, no parliamentarian nor any minister has so much as made a visit.
"We are helpless and no one has come to our help," says Preetam Meghar.
"Our children never went to school because there aren't any," Mir Khan laments, adding that there is just one primary school where one teacher has been deputed, who drops in sometimes but usually doesn't bother. There is neither any proper school building, nor furniture.
Despite all of this, when asked about the possibility of migrating elsewhere, the villagers said they could not migrate because they had no knowledge about other areas, and neither the requisite skills for a new means of livelihood.
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Death and misery is spread far and wide in White Thar, but the government does not appear to care at all.
Take a look: Media reports on Thar drought misleading: PPP leader
Meanwhile, in an area where there is no water, roads or electricity, one cellular company has set up its booster, as well as an easy-load point, powered by solar power in Ranaho in the desert. People use smaller solar panels to charge the batteries of their cell phones.
If technology can make inroads here, I'm sure food, water and healthcare can too, provided the authorities have the will.
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