Key Points
- In a small town in Pakistan's south east, villagers are trying to rebuild their lives after devastating floods.
- SBS News Asia Correspondent Aaron Fernandes spoke to locals on the ground.
After burying his brother, Imam Din is now sorting through the pieces of his collapsed home.
"There is nothing left for us," Imam told SBS News in the village of Qiam Kahn Wadhio.
"Crops are destroyed. Houses have collapsed. There's no help. We are only able to eat from donations."
His brother, Nizam Din, was trying to save his belongings when the water rose to his waist and the house collapsed.
Imam was out in a nearby field at the time, and tried to come to his brother’s rescue.
“A boy came and told me, ‘Your brother’s house has fallen on him’,” Imam says.
"We were in the fields, and rushed there. When we reached, he was unconscious. We carried him to a vehicle. But before we could reach the main road, he died."
Nizam Din's wife (centre) is in mourning for her husband. Credit: Pic: Aaron Fernandes
The couple's home was one of around 80 that collapsed in the village, with crops and livestock also destroyed.
Qiam Kahn Wadhio is a farming village in Shikarpur district, an agricultural region in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
In the middle of August, locals say it rained for more than seven consecutive days, causing the nearby Indus River to burst its banks and flood the village.
Most of the homes in Qiam Kahn Wadhio are simple structures made of mud bricks that crumbled as the waters surged.
Residents of Qiam Kahn Wadhio sit amid the destruction. Credit: Pic: Aaron Fernandes
An impossible choice
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have killed more than 1,200 people, in what Pakistan’s government has called a climate change disaster.
And it’s a humanitarian one too.
Next to the rubble of Nizam Din’s home are what remains of local woman Rani Sheikh’s house.
With resources scarce, she says she has few choices: she could afford either to eat or rebuild her home, but not both.
“You can see my house has fallen. With what I earn as a labourer, should I feed my family or rebuild my house?” Ms Sheikh told SBS News.
The entrance to the school in Qiam Kahn Wadhio village is blocked by floodwater. Credit: Pic: Aaron Fernandes
'We are homeless'
With traditional ways of living disrupted in the village, there’s an urgent need for tents and emergency shelter.
“We are sheltering in the men’s house now," Ms Sheikh said.
"Some are staying in schools and some are scattered. We are homeless."
The entrance to the village school is flooded with water.
The children climb over a wall to reach their classroom in an attempt to carry on a semblance of a normal life.
A high-level body set up to coordinate the relief effort met in Islamabad on Saturday for the first time, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to take stock of the disaster.
When SBS News visited, Qiam Kahn Wadhio village was receiving a delivery of aid.
Legal Rights Forum CEO Tahir Iqbal Malik (left) distributes aid.
The International charity said its concerned for childrens' psycho-social health and access to health facilities.
It's among organisations warning of a looming mental and physical health crisis for children in flood affected areas.
"The social safety nets are not there anymore," Save the Children Pakistan Country Director, Muhammad Khuram Gondal said.
"Hundreds of thousands of people are still sleeping under the open sky ... I was in the field and I have seen that they have lost literally everything.
"A lot of children have been separated from family, so family tracing is going on to reunite them.”
Legal Rights Forum CEO Tahir Iqbal Malik is calling on the global community for help.
“There is a lot of damage and loss," Mr Malik said.
"Livestock is dead, roads and infrastructure is dead, pregnant women are disturbed, crops also are destroyed," he said.
'There was no hope of surviving'
Across Pakistan, officials say that more than 2 million acres of agricultural land have been flooded, destroying most standing crops and preventing farmers from sowing new ones.
The village next door to Qiam Kahn Wadhio also saw devastating losses of houses, crops and life.
In Gambo Khan Unar Lundi, there’s nowhere to pump out the water and hundreds of people are facing a bleak future, relying on aid to survive.
The village of Gambo Khan Unar Lundi is surrounded by floodwater. Credit: Pic: Aaron Fernandes
"Our children had to live under plastic sheets for shelter.
"We started praying to Allah to save us, because there was no hope of surviving. Day and night it was raining. Both the young and old were worried. For days we had nothing to eat."
Pakistan has received nearly double the amount of rain than its 30-year average, in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7 millimetres.
Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was hardest hit, getting nearly five times more rain than usual in the period.
The floods were preceded by four heatwaves and multiple raging forest fires, according to local authorities.
Munir Akram, Pakistan's permanent representative to United Nations, says this is the result of climate change, following several years of high temperatures.
“We have crossed the tipping point which, on climate change, is considered to be two degrees centigrade and we have crossed between three to five degrees centigrade in some parts of Pakistan.”
There are concerns for the health of vulnerable children at risk of contracting infectious diseases as a result of the floods. Credit: Pic: Aaron Fernandes
“We are already facing the impacts of climate change that people have been talking about,” Mr Akram says.
For those in the worst affected areas, it's already a matter of survival.
And with one month still remaining in the monsoon season, people here are hoping the rain doesn’t start again.
