Islamic Relief aid worker, Mohammed Afsar, travelled from the UK to Pakistan to join the relief efforts to help 17 million people affected by the devastating monsoon floods. He gave an eyewitness account to the BBC World Service about what he had seen.
Mohammed Afsar: Initially I was in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in Nowshera and Charsadda, where we came across villages that were completely annihilated. This is over 180 villages destroyed completely, and we’ve been distributing hygiene kits, providing them with tents and clean water.
This morning I landed in Multan and went on to Muzzafargarh. Working with a local partner organisation, we’ve erected 475 tents in five different locations within the Muzzafargarh district. One of the main issues is accessibility - it’s just very difficult to get there with ordinary vehicles. We had to use tractors to get our tents to those areas a few days ago. We found that there were certain communities that were completely cut off and the only way that we could reach them was with boats.
BBC: Had they had any help before you arrived?
Mohammed Afsar: “Well no, not in that particular location. It’s the more inaccessible areas that are difficult and you’re finding that there are areas that nobody has reached before. Certainly, in Nohanwala, nobody had gone there before.”
BBC: How much coordination is there between the govt, between the NGOs, and the UN agencies to reach those people who still haven’t had any help?
Mohammed Afsar: Everybody’s cooperative and working together on this. There are regular cluster meetings that my colleagues are attending to coordinate the activities between the various INGOS, UN bodies and local government. There is coordination going on, but it’s just the scale of this disaster, it’s just beyond description. You’re looking at maybe two to three years before people will be able to recover.
BBC: When you meet the people who live in the areas where you are, Mohammed, what sort of state are they in, both mentally and health-wise?
Mohammed Afsar: The main thing is that there is a lack of water and the other issue is waterborne diseases. We’ve seen children playing in the floodwater, they’re drinking the water and this doesn’t bode well. Officials are estimating that amongst the internally displaced families up to 70% of the children either have scabies or suffer from severe diarrhoea.
BBC: That’s just incredible. And do you have the facilities to cope with that? Is the government able to cope with that?
Mohammed Afsar: It’s really stretched. We’ve done needs assessments, we’ve distributed tents, and what we’ve communicated back to our base in UK is we need to be purchasing boats. So we’re trying to get about four boats and also purchase water purification machines.
BBC: Mohammed, you’re a professional aid worker, how has it been for you seeing this disaster?
Mohammed Afsar: It’s emotionally draining. I was here five years ago during the earthquake, I was in Banda Aceh during the Tsunami, recently I was in Haiti - but this is just beyond. It just brings up new challenges, it’s the scale of the disaster, and the fact that it’s ongoing.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa last week we had planned to do a distribution of hygiene kits and when we got there we found that the area was completely flooded, the local government had ordered an evacuation. So what often happens is you plan for one thing, you go out there, but then things change which are completely out of your control.
BBC: And is that because the water is still moving? Is that why?
Mohammed Afsar: Exactly, the rain is coming down and as it’s coming down it’s just flooding all the areas again. So every time it rains people are worried ‘is it going to flood again?’, ‘will this village be cut off again?’ because the rain hasn’t stopped. It’s still raining.
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