Floods: we will all be affected....

Floods continue to wreak havoc in Pakistan. Travelling down from up in the north, the angry waters have destroyed many things along the way. However, its direct victim has been the village Pakistan. The villagers who keep the economic wheels of Pakistan that is primarily an agrarian country moving. Yet and yet! they remain on the lowest rung of the social ladder, bending under the burden of the privileged Pakistan that literally feeds on the toil of the folk in countryside. To make matters worse, these floods have devastated their already lifeless lives. In this backdrop, we the city-dwellers can no longer remain ensconced in the comfort that waters won’t touch us. Well, the water may well not touch us but the misery will. This is so because when the wheel stops moving in the village, we all come to a grinding halt.
People in the villages of Pakistan are equally important, if not more. For decades the state of Pakistan had forgotten and forsaken them until the nature’s fury chased them out of their anonymity and obscurity. Now, let’s turn this challenge into an opportunity by not only returning them their lives but also making sure that they are not out of mind once they are out of sight.

Stories out of floods...

The floods have thrown up some incredible survivor stories of courage, faith, desperation, fear, misery and miracle.

The following are a few of them:


1: BHOORI- THE SWIMMING COW-SAVED OLD WOMAN

“Allah saeen karam karaisy na Bhoori” (Allah almighty will bless our bhoori) says the 70 year old widow zainab bibi in her native seraiki as she addresses the cow which shakes its head in response.
Flash floods in dera din panah(kot addu) separated zainab bibi from her family of 30 members comprising her children and grandchildren.
That’s how she tells her story:
“ I was sleeping in the courtyard near the cattle pen while my sons and their families were present on the roof-top when a gush of water threw me up. Moments later Bhoori came from nowhere and I clung to her neck. We floated around for many hours and it was around fajr (dawn) that I finally felt ground under my feet. It was bhoori that brought me to a dry spot from where our neighbours brought us here(a relief camp near muzaffargarh)”
Zainab bibi is optimistic about reuniting with her family soon. For now, she only has the company of her cow, Bhoori.

2: FAMILY ATE LEAVES TO SURVIVE

Finally it was left to Mother Nature to save the lives of shamsher sial and his three children. They remained perched on a tree for two days after flash floods hit their village near bhakkar. Once they survived the deluge, their next main challenge was to find food for themselves as no relief goods could reach them.
Shamsher tells his story:
“We spent the whole of last Wednesday and Thursday on a charpoy we had placed on the branches of a tree. Some of my relatives did the same to save their lives. During the two days, we ate leaves to survive. It was only after the water had receded that we were able to climb down and proceed to the embankment.”

3: MAN RISKS LIFE TO SAVE HIS BUFFALOES

Everyone present at the Qadirpur embankment near Sukkur noticed a ‘drowning’ man who was floating at a considerable velocity in the water-hundreds of thousands of cusecs flowing mercilessly- but the man was not alone and nearly a dozen buffaloes were floating with him as if they were weightless.
“Leave the animals and just come out” shouts a rescue official at the embankment. But the ‘drowning’ man flows past, ignoring the advice and continues his desperate attempt to steer his buffaloes out of water. To the astonishment of many, he succeeds and manages to come out of the water along with his herd.
The man is clearly shocked and exhausted to the extent that he fails to realize that his lower garment is missing. Rescuers cover the shivering man with a sheet. He identified himself as Deen Mohammad and after a few minutes he is back on his feet, guiding his cattle.
Deen mohammad recounts:
“They are my family. They feed my children. When the soldiers came to rescue us in boats they refused to allow my cattle on the boat. So I sent my family on the boat and stayed behind. This morning I decided to try my luck and entered the water along with the cattle. It was scary.”