
On August 10, a family wades through water while fleeing the flooded village of Karam Pur, 43 miles from Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province. Around 3,000 people displaced by the floods have now taken refuge in Sukkur.
In the excerpt below, Oxfam’s Mubashar Hasan reports from Sukkur, a city in Sindh province, Pakistan. The UN estimates 1.1 million people in Sindh province alone have lost their homes, crops, and livestock during the major floods now affecting the country. While global funding for the emergency response has been slow, Oxfam and partners are aiming to reach more than 650,000 people with clean water, sanitation kits, and other essential aid.
As soon as I approached the city of Sukkur, I felt the tension in the air. I saw many folks were stopping their cars on Sukkur Barrage and anxiously looking down to the water flows of Indus River to measure the increase of the water level. Security was beefed up around the riverbanks where Pakistan Army, rangers and police personnel have closed many roads.
Sukkur is making headlines as next possible place to be hit by floodwater. If it happens, according to official predictions, many parts of Sindh Province will go under water.
After entering the city, I was roaming in an old, congested suburb near the riverside named Myani Road. Many shops in that place were closed down, and some people in small groups were discussing what to do. Few of them were going near to the river to measure the water level.
“We are living in anxiety here,” one man, Dr. Natwar Lal, told me. “Any moment water could submerge our shops and homes.”
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