Muzaffargarh expedition – contributing our two pennies

Ever since the flood disaster hit, I’d been thinking of doing some practical work on relief and thus far, my activities had been confined to helping the flood victims stationed in a nearby school. I also had some money piled up from friends and family and intended to embark upon a trip to afflicted regions. But things had been postponing over and over due to my house-hold engagements.

Today, though, as I recieved an sms from a friend inviting me to a trip to Muzaffargarh to disburse relief good, I promptly replied in affirmative(A huge part in this readiness was played by the inspiring narrations from others). By 11 a.m. I was heading straight for Ghanta Ghar where a number of PCYF(Pakistan Children and Youth Foundation, a local non-profit organization) members awaited departure. After brief introductions, we embarked upon the journey. To cite the load, we had some 100 packets, each containing daal, tea, milk, sugar, biscuits, medicine and other basic items. The total funds, I was told, had been 50,000, collected in two days and that this was a trip to gain a first-hand insight into the needs of the affectees and then plan a subsequent trip accordingly.

We soon crossed the Chenab bridge, where water was contained by dikes and embankments. As soon as we were across, there were tents pitched up along the road and people eagerly waiting and running after every load-carrying vehicle in hope for food and other material. And there were innumerable of them. I really wished to take a stop there but in better wisdom, Khwaja Mazhar Nawaz, leading the expedition told the party to drive further on, since the tail-end victims recieved the least of relief goods and were the most needy. Hence we kept our trail and in some time, we were near Mehmood Kot, some 40 kms from Jacobabad. Here we witnessed a first-hand state of affairs. The road, half-a-mile down our trail, was swallowed by water and this was the last possible stop. As soon as we applied brakes, all hell broke loose and people truly ‘attacked’ us from all directions. On the truck, we were a group of some six youngsters and while relentlessly thwarting the assaulters, we kept asking them to line-up so that we may hand away the relief goods in a more organized fashion. That was to no use of course. I must say it was the first time I witnessed hunger bare and naked, gnawing it’s teeth at us. Everyone wanted to get a crumb, no matter how small. And they fought for it. We had to resort to throw things up in the air and away from the truck to keep it from rolling over, a threat which seemed pertinent as a large mass clung to it. The packets were gone in no time and we could still see people, especially the old and the women, standing aside from the crowd, having not received anything since they couldn’t force their way through. I wished we had another truck-load of goods.

As we readied to head back, I kept asking myself whether this was the right way of disbursing goods, so randomly and without ensuring that it reaches everyone equally. However, a friend’s response answered the question well. ‘It has to be this way. In such a crisis situation and amid such a mass of deprived populace, we had to do this. Even when it doesn’t help in the best manner, it helps at least in imparting food and necessities to some.’ I know there was no best alternative and that this way the only way of doing things. On our way back, we saw other vehicles ran over and attacked by the populace the moment the drivers halted and decided to start the distribution. Some resorted to other measures such as throwing stuff while driving steadily. That, however, struck me as a rather worse choice. Even when we’d been manhandled, beaten, pushed and pulped in the entire process, it was a least humiliating way for the victims. Throwing things out of a vehicle while driving on and watching people leap at it is a rather inhumane way to help them.

What struck me most was the utter lack of any governmental authority, any official relif work or any other sort of aid that could have come from more organized quarters in this region. Even army’s relief role in the region was confined to a tiny camp near Muzaffargarh power station where it comprised a very bare fraction of the entire mass. Having read so much about relief camps and activities, it was rather shocking for me that this region seemed utterly neglected. Thanksfully, though, people had access to clean water. Tents, too, were few and far between with thousands sitting literally by the roads, helpless and hopefully eyeing every other vehicle that drove along. Fuel, we learnt, was precious and petrol was sold at a hellish price of some 130/litre, scarce and barely available. We did see many helping hands along the way, distributing packets of milk and other food items. But an organized relief work was absent all along.

We came back, happy with the tiny morsel that we had contributed in helping the victims and laden with grief over the actual work that needed to be done. It also affirmed our ambition to further our relief efforts, with plans for similar embarks in the coming days. On the drive back, heavy rain lashed down and we witnessed people rushing impotently in growing down-pours. Also, to think that the damage that was to be is done would be a mistake. Chenab river still threats the areas nearing Muzzafargarh and the main city itself with it’s widening breadth. And the rains only add to the misery and danger. Without appropriately cautioned by the government, affectees are camped in region which are prone to a possible flood-tide and things may worsen if a fore-warning is not issued to make them aware of the threat.

Also, although helping the relief victims brought into urban relief camps is more organized and convenient. But those that are still in the flood-ravaged regions or nearby are the ones in severest need of relief goods. Many of them are carrying farm animals with them and hence, take to camping rather than traveling to safer places. Those who choose to leave are forced to sell their animals at a fraction of their original price. “We were forced to sell our animals worth 10,000 at meagre prices of 2,500 per head” says our guide Ramzan, a resident of Kot Addu and currently stationed near Muzaffargarh with his family. Only this money enables them to travel with whatever is left of their belongings.

Most of the suffering populace is the lower class, earning their bread through day-to-day work. And now that their fields are swamped, houses are demolished and goods afloat in ruthless waters, they have absolutely no way to earn an income enough to buy them basic food and necessities. The work that needs to be done is doubtlessly huge and for now, the chief concern is to sustain these victims, through food, medicinal facilities, clothes and other items of daily use. Reconstruction can initiate only once the waters recede, which there seem no signs of as of yet. Till then, it rests upon us, the more fortunate of this country’s residents, to help these people in these trying times, both for the sake of their being humans and for the sake of their being our fellow countrymen.

P.S. Any readers from Multan or lower Punjab can contact me if they wish to participate in relief work. We have further trips planned to deliver the relief goods in the afflicted regions and volunteers may also join in.

- Salman Latif