Indus River Flood: The Fate of Squatter Settlements & Adjacent Villages

Only a few days ago, in the wake of the severe deluge upstream of Kotri Barrage, children swimming and women sponging down clothes on a partially dry passage of the Indus River (Sindhu Daryah) downstream, close to Sehrish Nagar embankment, doled out the delusion that the flood, which had flattened the upper parts of the country and engulfed vast stretches of the province’s upstream areas, inflicting huge losses in terms of life and property, was centuries away from their lands.

They used to live in a squatter settlement inside the river passage, disbelieving the fact that the flood approaching them downstream had reportedly killed 1,600 people, uprooted more than 20 million of the population, and left at least 2 million homeless, alongside roughly a trillion rupees worth of damage to property and businesses.

The water flow was around 125,000 cubic feet per second downstream of Kotri Barrage and the people living in the dry passage of Indus River were getting a gap between sand ridges filled with the help of an excavator. In their opinion, this would keep the waters away from their shelters. It proved to be a futile arrangement by the people – who refused to evacuate the area – and had contributed money to hiring the excavator to erect a barrier as a last resort because the government was already trying to convince them to shift into relief camps or other safer places. But barely a week or so passed before it became clear that it was an unfeasible solution, as their houses began disappearing under slowly encroaching water, when the river flow reached about 260,000 cubic feet per second downstream of Kotri Barrage.

Thousands of such squatter settlements and even permanent old villages all along the embankments of the Indus River across the country have met the same fate in the wake of the continuing floods and have already been washed away by gushing water. The Indus River has not seen such flows in a very long time. The lateral passages of the river have never been submerged in the last 15 years, which gave rise to a common perception that the river flow would never overcome its past peak again. Some people began farming on the floodplain of the river. At the same time, others sought permanent abode by constructing mud huts and concrete structures there, forming squatter settlements.

People of the squatter settlements along the river claimed to have purchased the plots inside the River for 1,000 to 20,000 rupees and were adamant about not evacuating the area and leaving behind their only shelter. They argued they had been living there for a long time and during that long period, no government authority had bothered to ever take notice of the formative slum village. If official regulations had been exercised in a timely manner, they argue, there would have not been any settlements with established market values for the land of these poor people and they would not have rapidly moved to the riverbed.

“Some influential people have occupied the dry land along the river and their farmers have been cultivating crops for a long time. They declare ownership of the land due to their occupation, asserting they have acquired the land on lease from the government. Amid the deluge, they do not even allow residents of this slum to dig out sand from the vicinity of their self-proclaimed lands for erecting barriers against the river flow,” said Haji Mohammad Yaqoob, a resident of Sehrish Nagar, who was grazing his buffalo in the field. “How could the government grant river land to private people on a lease!!!!?” he questioned, adding that the nearby population of Sehrish Nagar was not issued any warning or given training to face any emergencies.

Lack of sufficient conditions in camps and apprehensions about the government’s post flooding response also discourage people from evacuating the vulnerable areas. They want government assurance of compensation for their damages or a permanent substitute. “Government will accommodate us in camps only for few days without regular provisioning of food and other facilities; as soon as the flooding passes, we will be expelled from the camps and left stranded under the open sky without any help. It is what always happens and will happen this time, as this is our destiny, so we must face it now,” said Razzaq Jamali. “Our areas will be filled with water, and we won’t be able to return to our homes. If government is serious about our safety then it must compensate or provide us permanent substitutes.”

The abysmal poverty of people who colonize riverbeds is lamentable, but it seems to have supplied them with a lifetime’s ability to confront unbearable conditions. Such deplorable conditions appear to provide them with enormous spiritual strength, seemingly enough to conquer such calamities. But it again points to a fallacy in the present situation. Those who avoided repeated warnings to evacuate risky areas upstream are now marooned in deep waters.

This time, the thirsty Indus River has received increasing flows from retreating glaciers, besides the heavy monsoon rains due to climate change. The present spate in the Indus River is not permanent. Most of the time, it faces water shortages, and the poor who flourished on riverbed will probably have no choice but to return back and reconstruct their houses once the flow decreases, giving rise to the possibility of future emergencies. The situation has brought new lessons for the future and requires the proper attention and efforts by those responsible.