Friday, March 07, 2014
By
AFP

Allocated wheat rots, as poor face drought in Tharparkar

By
AFP
|
Allocated wheat rots, as poor face drought in Tharparkar
THARPARKAR: The people of Tharparkar, including children, continued to suffer from severe shortage of food, as piles of wheat allocated by the Sindh government for them is rotting in storage houses of the Provincial Food Department.

In the wake of drought in Tharparker, the Sindh government had declared the district of dry lands as calamity-stricken.

Life in Tharpaker – one of the most undeveloped and poverty-hit parts of Sindh – mostly depends on unpredictable drops of water that shower from the sky in the form of rain. The availability of food for both people and livestock primarily hinges on natural rain.

Low amount of rains in the past two years in this part of the province has caused severe drought in the region.

Many poor and under-nourished children are dying of a wide variety of diseases. A total of 121 kids brought to a public hospital in Mithi have so far lost their lives. According to DHO Tharparker, Dr. Abdul Jalil Bhurgari 32 children expired in just one month which is a highly disturbing figure.

Sindh government had on January 31 supplied 60,000 bags of wheat for free distribution among the drought-stricken local residents. But, till today, the wheat continues to remain locked in the storage facilities of the Sindh Food Department.

The shortage of food after devouring the animals has now started to take its toll on the human life while the poverty-stricken people still look up to the government in hope and anticipation.

The transporters are not ready to shift the wheat to the area. They are demanding from the government to first clear their outstanding dues amounting to Rs60 million.

On the above situation, Sindh Minister for Food, Jam Mehtab Dehar says he did not want to pin the blame of children’s death on anybody.