“We have nothing to eat now”

The disaster in Pakistan is unprecedented and over 14 million people are struggling to survive as a result of the floods. I thought I would share a brief report from ActionAid’s Communciations Manager in Pakistan, Javeria Malik, on her recent visit to to Punjab Province to give a sense of the devastation facing the people of Pakistan.

“Abdul Qayyum was crying as he told me his story. Previously a prosperous owner of a grocery shop, he had seen all his hard work and family’s wealth washed away when floods hit the Punjabi city of Kot Addu.

Like millions of others, he despaired at the government’s lack of help.

‘We’ve been totally on our own,’ he said. ‘Now we’re going back home – and God knows how long it will take us to repair.’

Abdul’s story has been repeated many times in the three weeks I’ve travelled across Pakistan, visiting the badly hit areas, meeting families escaping the flood waters. At first I saw people stranded in upper Swat due to washed away bridges and roads, and more recently met those returning to their collapsed homes in Southern Punjab, who were attempting to recover at least some of their belongings.

In Swat, it took me five hours to walk over broken paths and slippery rocks to reach the destroyed village Bishigram in Swat. Over 400 houses were flattened by the flash floods, and food, clean water and medical supplies could not reach it because the village was completely cut off. Women and children had not eaten well for many days and their food stock was dwindling. People had taken shelter with neighbours whose houses were still intact. Others were huddling under plastic sheets in makeshift tents.

ActionAid was the first aid agency to distribute emergency relief packages among the hard hit families of Bishigram. We gave them food items, household kits and hygiene kits for women and children, and told the men where the main distribution centre was.

More recently I visited the flood affected areas in Southern Punjab. Heading towards Layyah , a flood affected southern Punjab district, I was hoping the situation would be better than Swat. As we reached towards the end of our seven hour journey from Islamabad, the scene started to change. From the road I saw scores of damaged mud houses with no one living in them. It was uncomfortably quiet for a rural suburb of Punjab. I could see scattered household items, pieces of clothing, furniture and utensils. After being ravaged by the floods the town had the air of a sad painting.

Families were sitting along the roadside, with whatever was left of their possessions. They will continue to live there, under open skies, at the mercy of the heavy monsoon rains, until they are able to reconstruct their mud houses.

I saw some people trying to dry wheat by spreading it out on the road. They told me they would use it as fodder for livestock only as it had become unfit for human consumption. ‘It was all I had in stock to feed my family for the coming months. We have nothing to eat now’ said Muhammad Sarwar, an agricultural labourer.

On either side of Mohammad water stretched into the distance. Buildings such as government health centres, schools and mosques were all underwater – almost up to their roofs.

We finally reached a canal where boats were busy ferrying people arriving from the still-dry town of Dera Ghazi Khan back to their damaged homes in Layyah and Kot Addu. It was over 40 degrees and scores families with women, children and sick were waiting to get on the boat so that they could get back to their where their homes once were. Many of them said they had missed their home while staying with relatives or at relief camps. Upon hearing the news that the waters had started to recede, they could not wait to go home. There were pregnant mothers worried about the well being of their unborn babies, and others crying for the loss of their daughters’ dowry.

People complained that no aid had reached them and they were left on the mercy of the floods by the authorities. ‘Government did not do anything for us. We need food, clothing and money to start rebuilding our homes,’ they said.

Having seen so much destruction first hand, I fear for how long it will take my country to recover.”

ActionAid urgently needs your support to enable us to help the people of Pakistan. Please visit our website to learn more about our response and donate to the Pakistan Flood Appeal.