Lower districts deluged, Badin worst hit
Mithi and Deeplo share losses
thousands stranded in coastal areas

 

Heavy monsoon rains have devastated Sindh especially its lower parts. Badin, a coastal district of the province stands worst hit leaving a huge population stranded as the saline water channels overtopped and thus cut off main road communication roads in the district, locals say.

Authorities seem standing distant in relief works and the affectees have started moving camps on their own. Heavy downpour has deluged almost all standing crops and it is feared that the district may face worst food crisis in recent decades.
Badin produce paddy, cotton, sugarcane besides vegetables and if the water did not recede, the crops would be fully spoiled, growers fear.
The government has declared emergency in the district but has not declared it a calamity hit district.
Most part of Badin city, the district headquarter is also under water and the district administration is facing hardships as it continues raining for the last 40 hours. Local journalists told the Point the people were forced to move on their own and broke the gates of local schools so as to take shelter. Most people reached in the schools belong to coastal areas and of the countryside inundated by saline water channels.
Badin houses the last leg of the Left Bank Outfall Darin (LBOD) which is flowing high and activists say it may create yet another devastation if had any breaches. In recent decades saline water channels besides the LBOD have flooded the district time and again. in yet another district of Mithi the people have also experienced losses and as many as 5000 people have been affected and reached relief camps. It was a record downpour in the last 50 years, locals say. With Mithi, Deeplo is also affected and have record rains. Low lying areas of Mithi are still under water and the people are being shifted to drier areas of the city. A local journalist told the Point that the Kaloi area of the district was affected while the rest of Thar welcomes rains as the desert was on verge of famine. Thar sings for rains as they bring prosperity for the people of Thar. So the more rains it brings the more they feel happy, no matter if there are any losses of properties which are not permanent ones in the desert. (Aug 12, 2011)

Previous report said:

Monsoon rains continue in many areas of Sindh. More rains are exprected in the next 24 hours in Sindh, eastern Balochistan and southern Punjab, Met department reported.

During the last 24 hours, 231 mm of rain fell in Mithi, 30 mm in Garhi Dupatta, 13 mm in Chahur, 8 mm in Sahiwal, 6 mm in Chakwal, 5 mm in Muzzaffarabad, Okara, Kakul and Hyderabad
while 3 mm of rain fell in Thatta. In Karachi it started wuth light drizzle making the weather pleasant. It continues raining in the city.

According to met department, the rain spell began Tuesday night and different areas are likely to receive rain in the next three days.
The low lying areas including Umer Kot, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas have already received rain while the other areas of Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas are expected to receive heavy
downpour.

(August 10, 2011)