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Village Dharshi Bhagat lies by the road connecting Samaro town with Samaro Road; the latter being the town’s railhead where the old abandoned metre-gauge railway station still stands for the first two weeks after it started in late July, the rain did not stop for a minute. Thereafter it continued to teem down with brief intervals lasting never more than some minutes until the village went under a metre of water.

Twenty-five-year-old Heeru was only days from delivering her baby when it started. As the water rose, she and some other women made a desperate run to save whatever little cotton they could from the fast drowning field they had so carefully tended the land they worked as labourers. The struggle in mud and water was worth only a few thousand rupees.

With the village going under water, she and her family left their home and the fields and moved to the only stretch of road that was above the dark water. For three months, they lived under a makeshift shelter of bamboo poles holding up plastic sheeting for a roof. It was good fortune that Heeru had salvaged some cotton and there was some cash for food because in the time of the rising waters, she gave birth to her second child, a daughter. When her pains began, her husband hired a motorcycle and ferried Heeru to the Basic Health Unit at Samaro Road where she fortunately got the attention of the doctor and a safe delivery.

Not long after the birth of the child the meagre cash in her kitty ran out and her family subsisted on chilli paste and roti. Their one goat provided a small amount of milk daily. It was a hard life for the family, especially so for the young lactating mother.

Heeru recounted how her firstborn, a son, had died two years ago aged just four months. The child had gone down with fever and convulsions and though the Basic Health Unit at Samaro Road was just 4 km away, the parents were tardy in taking him there. For five days the poor child suffered and when they eventually did get to the BHU, the doctor could do nothing to save the baby.

For some inexplicable reason, seeking medical assistance was simply not a priority for these poor people. They still relied on folk medicine and even considered milk tea some sort of panacea.

Dharshi Bhagat, who gives his name to the village, said Heeru’s husband was lucky to be able to rent a motorcycle because shortly after, the only transport capable of plying on the submerged roads were big four-wheel drive vehicles. An ailing person had to be carried either on a string bed or piggyback all the way to the units either in Samaro or Samaro Road. And this was a time of rampant disease. Fever, skin infections and diarrhoea were raging in the makeshift camp strung out along the road. In that desperate time of zero income, men were seen carrying the ailing to the BHU.

In mid-October, the first Community World Service Asia’s medical mobile unit reached this village. The village was still submerged and the mobile unit had to be parked on the road, the only strip of land free of water. Dharshi Bhagat said this came not a day too soon for who would not have appreciated this gratis service at the doorstep in that time of great adversity.

Lady Health Visitor Farkhanda said the mobile unit had been on the road for ten weeks moving from village to village and treated on average a hundred and fifty patients every day. On the first visit to Dharshi Bhagat, they had a similar number between nine in the morning and three in the afternoon. Referrals of more complicated cases was made to the Samaro town hospital. Common complaints were malaria, water-borne gastro-intestinal, eye and skin infections. This time around, respiratory tract infections had increased and the demand was for ‘pills for strength’, as multivitamin tablets are referred to.

Outside, among the crowd of men waiting to consult the doctor Bhoomo said he felt weak and his ‘liver burned’ and showed a handful of blister-packed multivitamin tablets and an antacid.

“The first time the medical van visited our village, I was suffering from the same, but I had been out cutting mesquite to sell in neighbouring villages and I missed my chance to see the doctor,” said Bhoomo. For him his suffering was secondary. Most essential was for him to make some little cash for food.

Why hadn’t Bhoomo gone to the hospital in town during all this time? “I have no money, the fare out and back is Rs 40, and after I spend a day cutting mesquite, there is only enough cash to purchase food for my family of nine. I cannot afford to go to town.”

On the second visit in mid-November the mobile health unit had in just two hours treated one hundred and thirty patients. And an equal number waited patiently outside. Some like Dheero said they had no complaint and had come only to watch the goings on; most others complained of stomach ache and fever. Nearly all of them had either simply suffered stoically or experimented with folk medication to no effect. The lament was the same all around: they had no money to visit the hospital in town. And they could not afford to take time off from their struggle to earn some money.

Listening to the very vocal Kasturi, suffering in silence seemed to come naturally to them. She had a reasonable income from working as a seamstress while her husband was a door-to-door clothier. Their once comfortable life was now reduced straitened circumstances.

“The crops have all been destroyed. There is no work and therefore no money. Who can order new clothing in these times? The Lord is kind, I took great precautions and my three children did not fall ill, but families with illness could either feed themselves one, or at most two, meals a day. They did not have the means to make frequent trips to the Samaro hospital.”

Dharshi Bhagat was right: the mobile unit had come not a day too soon.

If the humanitarian food aid programme1 of CWSA favoured someone at just the right moment in their lives, it was old Moolo and his wife Babbri. In April 2022, shortly after this family had received the first aid package, Moolo had complained of failing eyes. But he and indeed others too thought it was only the usual age-related problem. Sadly, it was worse than that.

Back then, Moolo had suffered a setback because of the failure of the summer crop of 2021. The loan he and his son Chandan had got for agricultural input was lost and they were under debt. To make matters worse, in the absence of medication, Chandan’s epileptic fits got more frequent. But with food on loan, there was no cash for health care.

Then came the CWSA aid and with food taken care of, the old couple were able to provide the much needed daily dose of medication to their son. However, even as the young man’s health improved, old Moolo’s eyes deteriorated. With that, his speech was becoming increasingly unintelligible and his mind clearly slowing down.

A difficult life of poverty and privation had taken its toll for though he was barely into his seventies, Moolo was completely spent.

The idea of the little store he and Babbri had planned to open from the saving they would make because of the food aid, began to recede into the distance. Why, how was Moolo, now unable to go about unaided, to manage the store? Ever more difficult, how was he to go into town unattended to purchase supplies needed to keep the store going?

His wife Babbri, though just a few years younger but much more spry, became the person of the hour. She went ahead with the opening of the store which was nothing more than a variety of children’s snacks, a few packets of condiments and the unfailingly ubiquitous packets of cigarettes.

In early February 2023, just months after the last of the food packages had been received and consumed, Moolo was reduced to just a presence around the house: his eyes had finally given way and people around him were only unrecognisable shadows; only light and darkness were still clearly discernible. But the little store he had dreamed of was functioning out of the tin trunk and children of the village were frequently in and out of the compound picking up things against cash.

The question then was how was he managing the store with his disability? But before Moolo could respond, Babbri spoke up.

“He cannot do it now. I run the store and I net a daily profit of PKR 300 (Approx. USD 1),” she said. “Nobody gets credit from my store,” she added with a grin.

She related that the store was started shortly before the deluge of July 2022 with an investment of PKR 1000 (Approx. USD 3). In February, Babbri had stocks of PKR 3000 with PKR 4000 (Approx. USD 14) in hand to replenish her store. She was due to visit town with her cash to purchase supplies as she had been doing over the past seven months. And she was doing it all by herself. In effect, she was now the man of the house.

Asked how the food aid helped her and her family she was unequivocal: “It is because of this aid that we are not under debt. The little field we had planted as sharecroppers last summer, sprouted well enough. But with two straight months without a single day of sunshine and incessant rain, the crop withered. We were going to be without food and would have been forced to borrow money to keep body and soul together. Or we could have sold our goats to pay for food. But we are not under debt and we still have our goats!”

She related that three goats with three kids was a right little fortune in this Bheel village of poor folks. That means the family had their own milk for tea. And there was a time before 2022 when in years of poor harvest they would have only black tea.

The wheat harvest in ‘Sindh’, as the people of Thar differentiate the fertile canal-fed area from their rain-dependent desert, was drawing near, said Babbri. She and Moolo together with their two sons had migrated every March to participate in the harvest and returned with some 500 kilograms of wheat as their wages. This lasted them some four months until the millet and guar harvest was brought in.

But with Moolo’s deteriorating eyes and Chandan’s epilepsy, only Babbri and her younger son participated in the harvest in 2022. Now because Babbri will be minding the store, the responsibility of bringing home the wheat rested upon Chandan and his wife. They would be leaving in early March to be away for four or five weeks. If they work hard enough and Chandan takes his medication on time, they will bring home 400 kilograms of grain. The younger son who works on road construction sites, will remain back so that his daily wages provide the much needed cash to Babbri and the invalid Moolo.

But if Babbri were to also migrate to participate in the wheat harvest, there would be more than the anticipated wages.

“I cannot leave Moolo alone in his condition,” said the spirited woman. “I have to cook for him and look after his other needs. And then who will tend to the shop and purchase supplies?”

Ever mindful of her responsibility, Babbri pointed out that Chandan will be sent away with six weeks’ worth of his epilepsy medication. And that would cost about PKR 1000. Before the food aid, Chandan had suffered and with him the whole family because there had never been enough cash to provide the daily dose.

As for the future, Babbri was very clear in her mind. “If I have some more money, I’ll invest it in our store. But for the time being I am very satisfied with the way it is going.”


  1. Humanitarian, Early Recovery and Development (HERD) program

With the support of our partners, CWSA has initiated flood response in the most affected villages in Khairpur District of Sindh.

Latest monsoon rains in Pakistan have once again lead to widespread flooding, taking lives, damaging roads, and disrupting the lives of thousands of local communities that were already grappling with recovery from last year’s floods. The 2022 floods had a profound impact on a large population of Pakistan’s mostly rural community, affecting 33 million people across the country and claiming 1,739 lives1.

CWSA’s health team conducted health consultations and sessions in Ghulam Shabbir Kalhoro village in Taluka Kingri.

In initial response to the current floods, Community World Service Asia’s emergency team has conducted assessments in twenty-five villages, which were previously affected by last year’s floods, within the Khairpur district. This new wave of floods has again ravaged agricultural lands, livestock, and infrastructure of communities living in Taluka2 Sobhodero and Kingri.

The Mobile Health Unit visited different villages to provide primary healthcare to flood affected communities in Khairpur District.

More than 5,600 people and a total of 1,149 households in the two talukas have been severely affected by the latest round of floods. Many affected families have sought refuge on higher grounds. Some women and children have decided to stay in their homes, with the men of the families venturing out in search of daily wages and essential supplies to ensure basic survival at this time of crisis. As connecting roads to this part of the district remain submerged, affected communities have again resorted to using boats to access main roads.

Affected communities in Jummo Panhiyar village were provided with OPD consultations and free medicines.

Community World Service Asia, with the support of its partners, has launched immediate humanitarian response activities to support affected communities in Taluka Sobhodero and Kingri. Through our response, we are providing essential health services through mobile health units, offering curative and preventive consultations, outpatient care, antenatal care, postnatal care, health counseling, and health awareness sessions. The awareness sessions focus on preventive diseases, maternal and neonatal healthcare, and hygiene. Affected communities are in urgent need of food, healthcare services, veterinary support for their livestock, and assistance with transportation through boats to meet their survival needs during this crisis.

Affected communities have again resorted to using boats to access main roads.
The floods have again ravaged agricultural lands, livestock, and infrastructure of communities in Khairpur.

Note: Situation Update 1 on this emergency can be read here.

Contacts:

Shama Mall
Deputy Regional Director
Programs & Organisational Development
Email: shama.mall@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: +92-21-34390541-4

Palwashay Arbab
Head of Communication
Email: palwashay.arbab@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: +92-21-34390541

Sources:
www.ndma.gov.pk
www.arabnews.pk
https://pdma.gos.pk
https://reliefweb.int
www.nation.com.pk


1. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
2. In Pakistan, a tehsil or (taluka) is an administrative sub-division of a District.

Photo credit: CWSA staff in Khairpur, Sindh

According to the Flood Forecasting Division, the River Indus has experienced high flood levels at Guddu Barrage, with inflow ranging from 4,70,000 to 5,10,000 cusecs. Additionally, at Taunsa and Sukkur barrages1, Indus has been at a medium flood level.

This week’s monsoon rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the river has caused a surge in water levels at Guddu Barrage, with an inflow of 4,81,913 cusecs and an outflow of 4,61,563 cusecs.

In Ghotki2, a breach in the Zameendari Bund at Indus has resulted in the submergence of cotton, sugarcane and other crops and the disruption of land links for over ten villages, as shared by local sources. Another twenty villages in the Katcha area of Dadu district3 have also been flooded, leaving hundreds of acres of crops submerged. The situation has led people to move to safer areas on their own.

The Flood Forecasting Division predicts that River Indus will reach high flood levels at Guddu and Sukkur barrages within the next 12 to 24 hours, attributing the higher flows to rainfall in the river’s upper catchment areas. The upsurge in water level has also caused flooding in the katcha4 area of Pir Jo Goth and Gambat taluka in Khairpur district, leaving over seventy settlements stranded and at risk. Over 700 households of village Pandhi Mallah in district Khairpur have been left flooded after last night’s rains, with its people displaced and relocated to safe grounds, and disconnected from access to roads.

In upstream areas, the Indus River is experiencing low flood levels at Tarbela, Kalabagh, and Chashma, and medium flood levels at Taunsa Barrage.

Community World Service Asia Response:

Community World Service Asia’s emergency team is in communication with relevant stakeholders, including local authorities, disaster management agencies, and expected affected communities to ensure effective coordination and a timely response. Our team is on the ground, closely monitoring the situation and will immediately start relief operations when and if required. While focusing on preparedness, CWSA has developed a robust emergency response plan that outlines specific roles, responsibilities, and procedures to ensure a coordinated and efficient flood response.

Contacts:

Shama Mall
Deputy Regional Director
Programs & Organisational Development
Email: shama.mall@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: 92-21-34390541-4

Palwashay Arbab
Head of Communication
Email: palwashay.arbab@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: +92-21-34390541

Sources:
www.ndma.gov.pk
www.arabnews.pk
https://pdma.gos.pk
https://reliefweb.int
www.nation.com.pk


1. Sukkur Barrage is a barrage on the River Indus near the city of Sukkur in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Sukkur Barrage is used to control water flow in the River Indus for the purposes of irrigation and flood control. Head Taunsa Barrage is a barrage on the River Indus in Taunsa district of Dera Ghazi Khan DistrictPunjab province of Pakistan. And also controls water flow in the River Indus for irrigation and flood control purposes. 

2. Ghotki District is a district of the province of Sindh.

3. Also in Sindh

4. Riverine area

Photo credit: www.arabnews.com

On Saturday, June 29th, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warned of expected monsoon rains affecting parts of Pakistan within the next 48 to 72 hours. Meanwhile the Pakistan Meteorological Department (Flood Forecasting Division) reported that the River Indus at Guddu & Sukkur (in Sindh province) are at a medium flood level. Since the onset of monsoon season on June 25th, the death toll from rain-related incidents has reached 173, with casualties including 72 children and 32 women.

According to NDMA’s latest report, recent spells of rains have resulted in the complete destruction of 258 houses and partial damage to 1,227 houses nationwide. In Sindh province, six union councils in Dadu district have been affected by flooding, impacting an estimated 183 villages and 102, 268 individuals. Main roads connecting the district are left submerged in water, leading people to use alternate routes for access1.

Pakistan’s key water reservoirs in Mangla and Tarbela are approaching maximum conservation levels (MCL) amid monsoon rains. Moderate flash floods in River Kabul tributaries and hill torrents in DG Khan are also anticipated, while the NDMA warns of the Sukkur Barrage experiencing high flood levels by July 31st. Moreover, a latest Pakistan Meteorological Department report forecasts a possibility of thunderstorms with lightning and rainfall in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir in the coming days.

Last year’s monsoon season left about one-third of the country flooded, claiming nearly 1,700 lives and an estimated damage of over $30 billion.

Community World Service Asia Response:

Community World Service Asia’s emergency team is in communication with relevant stakeholders, including local authorities, disaster management agencies, and expected affected communities to ensure effective coordination and a timely response. Our team is closely monitoring the situation and will immediately start relief operations when and if required. While focusing on preparedness, CWSA has developed a robust emergency response plan that outlines specific roles, responsibilities, and procedures to ensure a coordinated and efficient flood response.

Contacts:

Shama Mall
Deputy Regional Director
Programs & Organizational Development
Email: shama.mall@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: 92-21-34390541-4

Palwashay Arbab
Head of Communication
Email: palwashay.arbab@communityworldservice.asia
Tele: +92-21-34390541

Sources:
www.ndma.gov.pk
www.arabnews.pk
https://pdma.gos.pk
https://reliefweb.int


1 This information was also shared by UNOCHA, Pakistan.

When the deluge of 2022 hit village Kumbhar Bhada bringing down so many of those mud-plastered chaunras all around, Saleh Mangrio and his wife Shabana had a fall back. They salvaged what they could from their collapsing hut, particularly Shabana’s sewing machine and the large tin trunk out of which Saleh ran his small provisions and snacks store and escaped from their damaged home to another they owned that had stayed intact on a dune in the village.

With plastic sheeting protecting the snacks in his tin trunk, Saleh continued his little business. However, Shabana’s work as a seamstress suffered because in that time of uncertainty with nonstop rain teeming down and no work to be found for a community of unskilled workers, women did not want new dresses done up.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2022, with seed provided under the Humanitarian, Early Recovery and Development (HERD), Saleh had sowed his three-acre holding with millets, mung and guar beans that he watched over with increasing anxiety as he knew the nonstop rain was likely to damage the yield. With food taken care of by the aid programme, Saleh’s primary worry as the deluge let off was for housing for the family and a place where his wife could again set up her own tailoring shop in their new location. He borrowed PKR 45,000 (Approx. USD 156) to strengthen the main chaunra, add another one, erect a thatched otaq to entertain his male visitors and even build a covered latrine.

Harvest rolled around in late October and Saleh recalled, “The harvest was not what should have been had the rain stopped after irrigating the sand. Nevertheless, it was enough for me to sell some for cash and repay my debt. And this was possible because the last two instalments of food aid took away our major worry and expense.”

His harvest was not the only commodity Saleh sold. He also had two male goats that fetched a reasonable price. Some of these proceeds serviced his debt, one part paid for a female goat and the rest was invested in the store. He reported that the store he started with stocks worth PKR 3500 (Approx. USD 12) just three years ago, was now worth PKR 16,000 (Approx. USD 56) at the end of 2022, fetching a net profit of about PKR 500 daily. He said that this investment in building his home and expanding his little store was possible only because of the food aid programme.

Asked what he thought was the greatest advantage of the food aid, agricultural training and input Saleh unequivocally said that it had kept him free of loan for the first time in some years.

“Normally, when crops fail and even though we recover the cost of the seed, it is loss because the reduced harvest cannot feed us. Most times we end up selling our livestock only to pay for food items. When I sold my goats late last year, I was not consuming the money but investing it in housing for the family. That was the win for us.”

The Mangrio family knows adversity as well as so many other natives of Umerkot. In 2021, he had fifteen goats, recalled Saleh. The drought was so bad that water ponds and even underground storage tanks dried up. All around the village livestock began to perish and Saleh acted swiftly to sell off five goats. The price was well below the going rate, but it could not be helped. At least he got something out of his livestock even as three of his animals perished.

But as 2023 dawned, Saleh Mangrio was happy that he still had four goats that were bound to multiply. Also, his store was fetching a little profit to pay for the daily kitchen expenses and, best of all, he was not under debt.