KARACHI – It is hard to sense the terrifying degree of problems rains and flood-stricken people have been going through in many districts of the province. Losses are immense. Particularly in remote villages, where no rescue teams could reach for many days, losing their belongings to raging floodwaters groups of families set out for unseen destinations with fewer or no food supplies available with them. Some found refuge on roadside or along canal banks; some remained stranded on patches of high ground. Before they could be approached by rescuers, they found themselves inside the jaws of death. Onboard a rescue boat, Ghulam Mustafa Mengal of Abdul Majeed Mengal village, tells, “Fifteen days ago, we (24 families) set out for Dera Allahyar Town. We could not gauge the intensity of the flood. Within no time, the entire area was under water.” He says, “Obviously, we had decided timely. But when we reached the road, we found that we were disconnected from the rest of the world.” Although it was a depressing situation, we stayed calm. We hurriedly took some ration and water on our way to an unseen destination. But sooner, we decided to stay at the roadside. There was no hope. Water was all around us and that track of tarmac seemed the only safe place. “We spent the first night in fear. Next day in the morning, we asked our women to cook something. Our hungry children were worried.”Mengal, father of nine children — four sons and five daughters – further says, “During this horrible journey, we lost animals to the want of fodder. All these days, we thought we all would die of starvation and pain like our livestock. On fourteenth day, we saw boats rowing in the distance. We cried a lot to draw their attention but failed. Then, we realised that these boats might be finding trapped people. The next day, a Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum boat, carrying marooned people appeared. We were assured that we would soon be rescued. Within the next few moments, a boat came and took us all.”Mengal thanks Almighty Allah that they are safe. He says their houses collapsed one after another. “We had a little ration, but no drinking water. We used to drink from stagnant water.” I lost six goats while the remaining six are my all asset now,” concludes Mengal as the boat takes them to their relatives to a safer place outside Thul, Jacobabad. PFF chief Mohammad Ali Shah says they have provided 12 additional boats to rescue people trapped in flooded villages in Balochistan’s Jaffarabad, Naseerabad and Kashmore and Jacobabad of Sindh. “Now we have 36 boats.”

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