Emergency relief measures urged to mitigate effects of protracted drought in Thar
The Dawn, By Prem Shivani
11/28/2002

MITHI, Nov 27: This year's drought has added to the miseries of the people of Thar, who are still reeling under the compound effects of the four-year-long drought, lasting from 1997 to 2000, earthquake and the Cyclone 2A.

Malnutrition, which is attaining an alarming magnitude, is most likely to multiply the risks of diseases while raising the mortality rate in the near future.

The people of Thar have repeatedly appealed to the government, non- governmental organisations and international relief agencies to initiate relief operations on emergency basis to mitigate the sufferings of the drought-hit population of the area.

A visit to a number of villages in the four talukas of the Tharparkar district revealed that around 40 per cent of the local population has already migrated to irrigated lands in adjoining districts in search of sustenance.

The mass migration has created an acute shortage of milk, curd and ghee in many areas as the migrating hoards had carried their cattle along with them.

The incidence of night blindness, vitamin A deficiency, tuberculosis and other ailments has risen among the already malnourished drought victims.

The people of the area, contacted by this scribe, said that they believed the government officials to be under the impression that the prevailing drought was an ordinary drought. But, they added, this was one of the worst drought in their memories.

Stressing on the need to rush food and other items to Thar, they said that a large number of people may face death by starvation in the next few months in face of negligence on part of the government and other relief agencies.

Replying to this scribe's query regarding the extent of the effects of the current drought on the health of Tharis, the incharge of the Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Truest, Mithi, said that a few patients visited the charity eye hospital during a good year for treatment of night blindness.

He said that they usually visited the eye hospital in December. However, the prolonged drought has affected the health of the people of the rain-fed sand belt after the prolonged drought caused a food shortage as they could not grow food crops or even vegetables for their consumption.

The number of patients, suffering various eye diseases, has increased in the wake of food shortage and the accompanying malnutrition, he said.

He also said that he had intimated the trust's management about the deterioration in the Tharis immunity because of severe drought conditions.

He said that a large number of the patients visiting the hospital were also suffering from vitamin A deficiency, and called for provision of adequate supplies of vitamin A capsules.

Earlier, the district government Tharparkar had apprised the relevant government authorities, in August and September, about the onset of the drought and massive exodus and had called for the launching of a relief operation.

The governor, the chief secretary and the relief commissioner, had visited Thar and sanctioned the supply of 178,000 bags of wheat weighing 100kg each.

The relief wheat is being distributed free of cost among the drought-affected families. However, scores of people told this correspondent about massive irregularities in the distribution of the relief wheat.

They said that the wheat distribution was highly discriminatory and politically-motivated. They also complained about the inferior quality of the commodity being distributed and irregular weight of the wheat bags.

The Tharis accused the transporters, the officials of the food and the revenue departments of misappropriating the relief wheat, saying that thousands of poor and deserving families had been deprived of the relief wheat.

An official of the local NGO, Tharparkar Rural Development Programme, said that the NGO had recently published a comprehensive report about the drought situation in Thar.

The report, he said, mentioned that 21 per cent of the Thari families had migrated to irrigated areas, along with their entire families, while 36 per cent of the earning hands of the remaining families had also migrated. The TRDP, he said, has already launched a relief programme.

http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/28/nat16.htm