Pakistan: Unusually high tide floods coast, inundates homes

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=117361
Unusually high tide floods coast, inundates homes
Sunday, June 08, 2008
By Jan Khaskheli

Karachi

Unusually high tides which started flowing in Friday evening have affected many coastal localities, including parts of the second largest locality, Rehri Mayan, as well as the Dabla and Lut Basti neighbourhoods. A large number of houses situated near the seashore have become inundated, and residents have been compelled to abandon their dwellings.

Meanwhile, government authorities concerned have failed to provide quick relief to the affected families, especially the residents of Dabla. The latter, comprising 300 houses, is completely under seawater now.

People living in areas situated below sea-level face difficulties in the monsoon season and high tides but they have never had to relocate. This time around, however, these ?strange waves? forced them to leave their houses. A large number of families have been displaced by the high tides and fear still prevails, said a local activist.

Earlier, the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) built a protective wall in front of the seashore. The embankment was, however, never repaired. During high tides, especially in June and July, houses near the shore have become flooded with seawater.

According to the local villagers, high tide hits the locality twice a month, because the village is below sea level. The current waves are, however, much higher than usual.

A team from the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), led by PFF Chairman Mohammed Ali Shah reached the area to rescue the people. About 2000 residents, including children, have been waiting to receive food for the last two days.

Moreover, despite the fact that Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has lifted the ban on fishing during June and July, traditional fishermen do not go out into the open sea because they are of the opinion that these two months are the breeding season.

An old fisherman Hassan Dablo said that while they have stopped fishing as is usual between June and July, the strange high tides have now hit their abodes and deprived them of their belongings. He said that the residents also lost food items to the incoming waves.

Akhtar Shaikh, a PFF activist, said that one resident, Siddique Shaikh, has been admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) because he was vomiting. The incoming oily and filthy seawater may cause an outbreak of diseases in the area, if authorities concerned do not act on time, Akhtar Shaikh said.

The villagers have made wooden places above the ground to save their belongings and mostly sleep over them in order to protect themselves because the high tides always hit them at night. They have also built their kitchens above the sea level. Several courtyards can be seen inundated in the filthy seawater.

When the waves first crashed in, several residents started crying for help and believed that they had been hit with a disaster, PFF activists told The News. The PFF activists started to develop the damaged embankment but due to the unavailability of earth, the community people could not repair the wall. Later Bin Qasim Town Nazim, Jan Alam Jamot; former Sindh Assembly member, Mahmood Alam Jamot and present MPA, Haji Muzaffar Shujrah visited the affected areas.

The town nazim sent trucks containing gravel to save the village but the gravel could not stop the rising tides. According to the reporters who reached there, the residents are still out of their abodes.

The residents of Dabla had earlier immigrated from the Indus Delta after the sea erosion started there, and their houses and fertile land vanished into seawater. Due to a lack of fresh water in the River Indus they left their ancestor?s homes and settled at the Karachi coast.

PFF activists accused ?the mangrove-cutting mafia? for the disaster. Mangroves are natural shields around coastal localities, they said, adding that the destruction of these shields may prove to be disastrous for other seashore localities as well.

[Shiloh]

Re: Pakistan: Unusually high tide floods coast, inundates homes

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=117532

Intensity of tides declines while storm fears persist
By By Jan Khaskheli
6/9/2008
Karachi

Though the intensity of high tides in the Arabian Sea near Karachi, Thatta and Badin has receded, the fear of a sea storm still persists in many affected areas. Many families of affected localities in Karachi and Thatta are still out of their houses after unusually high tides hit the area.

Male members of the affected families were reportedly trying to clear out the mud raked in by the incoming seawater in order to make their abodes habitable again.

Nawaz Dablo, a resident of the most affected Dabla village, told The News that his village was selected to be made a ?Model Village? in February 2008 by the Sindh government. The former (caretaker) chief minister had inaugurated the scheme which cost around Rs60 million. Nawaz said that the caretaker CM had announced that the scheme would be completed within a month. The project has, however, been in the doldrums with the formation of the new government. ?Had the government implemented the project on time, residents of the area would not have faced this loss,? he maintained.

No representative from the government or from non-government organizations (NGOs) visited the affected localities. The residents were left without relief goods, medicines or other help, despite the fact that three days have passed since the localities were hit by high tides. Houses are still inundated with seawater and the residents do not have sufficient food and potable water. The likelihood of an outbreak of diseases could not be ruled out either.

Zamin Ali Shah, one of the elders of an affected locality, Sachedino (adjacent to Rehry Mayan), told The News that the high tide hit their area at night, inundated their houses and forced them to abandon their dwellings. ?We could not take a single item from the kitchen, or even clothes. We left in an emergency when seawater entered the houses. We took our children and left our homes in fear. The priority was to reach safer places instantly,? Zamin Ali said.

Ali Shah, another dweller of the same locality, said that all the residents of 150 houses were still out, looking for help. ?Our hope is diminishing after the third day because no government official has come yet to ask about the plight of the affected families,? he said.

Akhtar Shaikh, an activist of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), who was in Rehri monitoring the situation and extending help to affected families, said that while the situation was returning to normal, the fear of another tide hitting the localities still persisted, however.

Since the localities are situated at the frontline of the seashore, the residents are fearful of disasters. PFF team members also visited Dabla, Chashma, Jatt and Sachedino.

Shaikh said that the residents of Dabla have returned to the area and are cleaning the filth and mud from their courtyards and makeshift abodes. But, he said, there is no outlet to discharge the muddy water because the locality is situated below sea level.

The Bin Qasim Town administration has launched a small project of earth filling by trucks carrying mud and gravel, keeping in view that the level of the affected Dabla locality could be improved above the sea to avert any possibility of damage by high tides in the future. They have also started to repair the embankment that was washed away by the high tide.

Bona Fide Fishermen and Boat Owners Welfare Association President Asif Bhatti said that when they approached Meteorological Department officials after the prediction of a cyclone that developed in the sea earlier, they (Met office) replied that the waves might affect coastal villages near Thatta and Badin districts. They said there would be no damage to Karachi coastal localities. ?They said Karachi was safe,? Bhatti said.

Earlier, it was forecast that a cyclone that had developed in the sea may hit the Oman coast and parts of the Balochistan coastal belt. Its intensity had, however, declined.

A recent study has declared the entire South Asian coastline as a disaster-prone area which is also vulnerable to cyclones.

Reports reaching here said that 300 coastal villages situated near district Thatta have been inundated by seawater after an unusual high tide hit the entire seashore.

Khanani Canal, the only source of supplying water to many coastal villages, is also under the seawater. People do not have an alternative to receive sweet water for domestic use. The local district administration of Thatta has asked fishermen to not venture into the sea for fishing for the next few days. Boats have therefore been anchored at the seashore.

Activists have, however, warned that hunger and diseases could intensify if the government or NGOs failed to provide food, shelter, safe water and medicines to the affected families, who are either near the upper sites waiting for help or are still residing in the muddy homes.