LARKANA: Speakers at a conference cast doubt on international aid reaching genuine internally displaced persons as Sindh government focused only on corruption instead of serving rain and flood victims.

The government had miserably failed to drain out stagnant floodwaters from towns and villages, which were deliberately flooded by manmade ‘cuts’ and ‘breaches’ in canals and irrigation channels to submerge Sindh, they said.

They were speaking at the one-day conference on ‘Restoration and rehabilitation of rain affected people’ held at Larkana Press Club under the aegis of Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Riaz Chandio the other day.

Riaz Chandio, chairman of JSM-R who presided over the conference, said that it was a considered opinion of intellectuals and water and climate experts that the story of unprecedented rain was a conspiracy which was portrayed as a natural disaster.

He said that this manmade disaster had ruined Sindh both socially and economically. Hundreds of marooned people were dying of diseases and starvation while Sindh government had emptied the exchequer in their name, he said.

He cast doubt on international aid reaching genuine IDPs and said the government had failed to clear towns and villages of stagnant floodwaters. “On ground we don’t see any measures to clear the flooded farmland and villages of stagnant waters,” he said.

He said that coalition government in centre had left Sindhis in the lurch while it was busy seeking loans from the world in the victims’ name and filling its exchequer.

Rulers and bureaucracy had become active in Sindh to mop up funds on the pretext of extending relief and rehabilitation facilities to IDPs as they had no fear they would ever be asked about such funds, he said.

He said the government was planning to keep floodwaters inundating farmlands till 2023 so that tillers could not cultivate wheat crop. The Sindh government had adopted this strategy to create drought and compel rain victims to barter their votes for food, he said.

Former MPA of GDA Moazzam Abbasi accused the Sindh government of focusing on corruption instead of serving rain victims. The ‘cuts’ and ‘breaches’ in canals and drains were manmade that served only to submerge Sindh, he said.

He said that entire Sindh including Larkana was facing deplorable conditions. He asked people to rely on their strength and courage to rebuild their homes and hearths instead of looking to rulers for aid. Currently, 70 to 75 per cent Sindh was under water while 80 per cent population in Larkana had consumed their resources to dewater their areas, he said.

He wondered that since 2010 billions of rupees had been spent on saline water drains which had unfortunately flooded the province instead of draining out rainwater.

He said that instead of releasing water into Manchhar Lake and Indus River, the Sindh government had criminally kept it standing for an entire month while irrigation department was invisible when the breaches were being made.

Sardar Zaffar Ali Sangi, Mohammad Ali Hakro, Dr Mazhar Mughal, Dr Sheeba Mughal, chairperson of Sindh United Party women’s wing, and Dr Nabi Dino Buledi also spoke at the conference.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2022