For the residents of the dusty village of Bakhar Jamali, at the foot of the Kirthar Range in Sindh’s Dadu district, the day begins with the rising sun. But instead of bracing for new challenges, the locals have to start the day with a familiar old struggle — the search for drinking water.

Water is the most precious commodity for the people of the Kaachho area, including in the Wahi Pandhi Union Council of Johi Tehsil of Dadu. The word Kaachho means ‘armpit’, likely a reference to the area being tucked away as it is in the lap of the Kirthar Mountain Range, which separates Sindh and Balochistan.

The situation has frustrated the locals, who are still reeling from the impact of the flood two years ago, which inundated their fields and washed away their lives and livelihood. It is the same story in the village of Bakhar Jamali, which residents say has been around for more than three centuries.

Mazharul Haq Jamali, who is now in his forties but appears much older, has grown up surrounded with the same hardships. Clad in a crumpled shalwar kameez and dusty flip-flops, his rugged face bears the marks of the hard life that is the lot of the people of the area.

For the residents of villages of the Kaachho region in Sindh’s Dadu district, the search for water remains the biggest of the multitude of challenges they face on a daily basis…

“People in the Kaachho area get up early in the morning and think of places from where they can fetch water for their children, who are already malnourished and deprived of basic facilities, such as water, health, food and education,” he tells Eos.

“When I was a child, I saw my father and mother struggle every day to fetch water from distant locations, sometimes four to six kilometres away,” Jamali continues. “While it was a daily struggle, it was also a celebration when our parents would return with donkeys laden with water cans,” he says.

Earlier, people would draw water from the wells, constructed in the village almost a century ago. “There are six wells in my village, which we would use. I also used to pull up water from them,” says Jamali. “But the wells have now dried up.”

Jamali hopes that the government would extend the water supply to the Kaachho region, and the village would one day have access to tap water. But recent experiences have put a dampener on those hopes as well.

DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

The village of Bakhar Jamali is greatly reliant on rain for its water needs. But it can be as much a boon as it can be bane, most recently in the wake of 2022 floods. Sindh was among the worst affected by the floods, with large swathes of land submerged under water.

It was the same in Bakhar Jamali, with locals saying that it took more than a year for the flood waters to completely drain. It also contaminated the few water sources they had at their disposal.

The rains also unleashed the fury of the rocks and boulders of the Kirthar Mountain, as huge pieces of stone slid down to the Kaachho area and destroyed the makeshift pathways and walking passages used by the people.

“The people have a strong bond with these mountains,” says Jamali, adding that villagers get wood as well as hay and straw for their livestock from the mountains. “But this bond breaks down when the rain gets heavier,” he adds.

Historically, the district of Dadu has always been in the grip of calamities. During the floods of 2010 and 2022, the area of Johi as well as the adjoining Khairpur Nathan Shah area were submerged, with water several feet high, which resulted in massive loss of life, livestock and houses.

It doesn’t help that most of the houses in Bakhar Jamali are constructed of mud and stones, leaving them at the mercy of torrential waters during flooding, as happened two years ago. The stagnant rainwater also brought with it a petri dish of diseases, with outbreaks of malaria and dengue also claiming lives.

“Our village was completely covered with water during the floods,” says Jamali. “Entire families were stranded for long periods, surrounded by water, as our lands turned into marshes,” he continues.

The villagers not only lost their homes but also their livelihoods, he says. “There are only two sources of earning for the people of the Kaachho area — one is agriculture and the other is working as a labourer, whether in Johi, Dadu, Sehwan Sharif, Hyderabad, Karachi or any other city,” adds Jamali.

DROWNING IN PROBLEMS

In between, there have been periods of drought, such as between 2016 and 2018. A similar dry spell has followed since the ‘biblical’ floods of two years ago, further straining the water sources at the villagers’ disposal.

Meanwhile, the area continues to suffer from systemic neglect, with education and healthcare facilities almost non-existent. Young boys and girls, in tattered clothes and visibly malnourished, roam the dusty streets of the village.

Jamali says the primary school in their village was shut down in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. It is yet to reopen. Other schools are at a distance of several kilometres, making it difficult for the children to make the commute.

“Most of the children in the village, who were born after 2007, have never been to a school,” says Jamali. He points out that there are around 500 to 600 households in his village, with at least one to two school-going age children in every household. “These kids have no clue about education or what a school environment provides.”

The area already scores poorly on key indices, with half of Sindh’s children under the age of five said to be stunted. The literacy rate in Dadu is said to be close to 50 percent, but there have been claims that such figures are buttressed. According to the 2017 census, the literacy rate in Johi was calculated to be a little under 30 percent, going down to 18 percent for women.

A SLIVER OF HOPE

Bakhar Jamali is one of the villages to benefit from water schemes initiated with the assistance of Save the Children International (SCI), which has provided some much-needed relief to the residents of the Wahi Pandhi Union Council. The project, carried out by the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), provides ‘multi-sectoral support’ to the flood affected and food insecure communities in Khairpur Mirs, Dadu and Sanghar.

Dr Rashid Bajwa, who heads the NRSP, says the unavailability of water has impeded the progress of the area, while expressing hope that his own organisation’s intervention would contribute to the region’s development.

For Jamali, the solution is obvious. It has to start with the basics, including ensuring that the children in the area have access to education and greater livelihood opportunities going forward.

Equally pressing is the issue of water availability, a desperate need of tubewells and solar-powered electricity, along with support to agriculturists and farmers in the area, who are still struggling to harvest their lands following the floods.

The villagers are very clear in what they need but they feel that their plight and pleas for intervention continue to fall on deaf ears. “We have been deliberately cast aside,” says Jamali.

Furqan Hyder Shaikh is a development expert.
He can be reached at furqanhyders@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 19th, 2024