floods demolished this farming village in the southern province of
Sindh, its residents still live in limbo on a roadside.
Let down by their unpopular government, and too poor to rebuild their
homes, villagers living in tents can only pray the next monsoon season
in July won't bring more upheaval.
"We are hardly getting any help," said Alimi Khoso, pointing to a
dirty plaster around her two-month-old granddaughter's leg, broken in
an accident in a tent camp.
"Where will we go if there are more floods. We don't even have enough
money to run away."
Monsoon floods began roaring through Pakistan in late July last year,
leaving about 11 million people homeless.
The government was slow to respond while the military, seen as a far
more efficient institution, took the lead in relief operations.
Pakistani leaders could face fresh criticism if dire conditions in
flood-affected areas worsen.
Many communities in Sindh are still surrounded by floodwaters and
hundreds of thousands of people still live in temporary shelters, even
though more than $1 billion in flood aid has been delivered to
Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally.
In Ramli Khosa, about 1,5OO people reside in rows of bare, white tents
donated by Arab and Western aid groups.
They must travel about a kilometer to fetch water in tough conditions
felt in many flood-affected parts of Sindh province, which was hardest
hit by the disaster.
In interviews in several villages only a few people said they received
compensation from authorities -- 20,000 rupees ($233.9).
That doesn't go far. Prices remain unbearably high after floods
destroyed crops and cut food supplies.
Farmers say it could be years before they are able to plant again. To
survive, some toil as laborers, earning about a dollar a day.
Government help is unlikely to come soon.
Pakistan's government has been preoccupied by political crises and
already faces a host of other problems, from power cuts to a stubborn
Taliban insurgency.
Even if it decides to step up efforts to help millions of flood
victims who sank deeper into poverty after the catastrophe, generating
enough funds will be difficult.
Without implementing painful economic reforms, the government will
keep struggling to secure the sixth tranche of an $11 billion IMF loan
propping up the economy.
"The flood issue adds to the government's long list of woes. The state
is already stretched in many directions," said Kamran Bokhari, South
Asia director at STRATFOR global intelligence.
People like Qurban Ali have been largely forgotten both at home and abroad.
Ali stood over some bricks -- what's left of his flattened house --
glued together with a mixture of sand and cement to form a small
frame, a tiny step toward recovery.
"How can I plan to rebuild it without any help from the government,'
he asked, as mangy dogs lingered nearby.
A group of angry men held up a document which promised a local
official would deliver six sacks of staple foods. He delivered only
three and demanded a bribe, they alleged.
Ruling Pakistan People's Party spokeswoman Fauzia Wahab said the
government was doing its best to help flood victims.
"We are providing the farmers free-of-cost fertilizer and seeds. But
as you know we still have a problem with cash," she told Reuters.
MEDICINE IS TOO EXPENSIVE
Resentment is also growing elsewhere in Sindh, home province of
President Asif Ali Zardari.
In Murad Chandio village, Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers unload
sacks of flour from a truck as dozens of people who returned only a
month ago line up for help. It may temporarily ease suffering. People
there want long-term stability, and that can only come from the
government.
Families live beside wreckage, protected only by blankets hanging
above them. It's easy to see why many are terrified at the thought of
new raging waters.
"People's resilience has been really affected. Even any low level
flooding in future is going to be a problem. They may not be able to
cope," said Penny Sims, a Red Cross spokeswoman.
The ripple affects of the floods are felt most acutely in the
downtrodden parts of Sindh.
Economic devastation has left families unable to care for their
neediest loved ones. Ten-year-old Gulbahar Hidayatullah's bone
disease, rickets, is inflicting even more pain because relatives can't
afford to buy her enough medicine to treat it.
While some youngsters pass time playing beside the destruction left by
the floods, a relative has to hold her up.
Other children have been set back in different ways. In Ramli Khoso,
an 85-year-old toothless woman named Allahrakhi walked barefoot with a
tree branch she uses as a cane.
She barely had the energy to express her biggest worry -- her grandson
may be deprived of an education because floods have kept him out of
the classroom.
"I want him to have money so he can go to school, so he can get
married one day," she said, trembling. Others worry about just getting
their children through the next few weeks or months.
In Adam Khan village, located beside a canal with stinking, stagnant
water left by the floods, a woman lies in a tent. She gave birth there
a day earlier without medical attention because the cost of transport
to a clinic was too steep.
The infant yawns in the heat, flies swirling over her sweaty face.
