Aerial photo taken on Sept. 29, 2022 shows a makeshift shelter built with tents donated by China in flood relief aid in Matli town of Badin District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)
by Ali Jaswal
Lali, a three-year-old girl, is malnourished and often cries due to a skin disease. This skin disease along with other water-borne, vector-borne and viral diseases are very common among flood-affected internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.
Despite uncountable challenges, Lali's father Hero, a 35-year-old farmer and an IDP, is quite satisfied with China-donated tents being used in a newly established tent city in Matli town of Badin district in Sindh, where he is currently living along with his family.
"These tents are very good, we feel very good in them. It's a very strong and very accommodative tent," Hero told Xinhua.
Around 95 tents were installed in the area where almost 581 people are currently living, including 379 children.
Following the devastation caused by this season's monsoon rains-triggered heavy floods in Pakistan, China has already delivered 13,000 tents to the country by air. These tents are being utilized for the accommodation of the IDPs.
"It's a very good quality tent. There is no issue of mosquitoes or water we face in these tents. Everything is good. We are living with comfort," Magge, Hero's mother, said.
Hero, who is living in a tent with his mother, wife as well as four daughters and a son, is a farmer and used to cultivate cotton and rice in his village, which is around 500 meters away from the area.
The whole family left their hometown about a month ago after it got flooded and had no other option but to live on a road.
"My home and all my fields were destroyed from the flood water," he said.
More than 15 days ago, after spending nearly several weeks on the road, the family was allocated in a tent by the local authorities and now they feel comparatively relieved in it.
"Hundreds of thousands of times, I want to thank China for its compassion and support to us during this disaster," Magge said, adding that "we had nothing left and had no place to live so we are very thankful for this support of the Chinese people."
Sindh has been the worst-hit province of the country where at least 757 people died and 8,422 were injured from the floods since mid-June, according to the latest report released by the National Disaster Management Authority.
A total of 23 districts and around 14.5 million people were affected while 366,682 people are currently living in camps in Sindh, the report said.
Noor Ahmed Khahro, assistant commissioner of Matli, told Xinhua that the floods have affected all of Badin in general but this particular region was one of the most affected parts since it's a low-lying land.
He said the majority of the region's population was living in poverty and with the destruction of their homes and agricultural lands, the local authorities had shifted some of the families to this tent area developed with China-donated tents.
Khahro said the victims in the tent area have been provided basic food, clean drinking water, health and education services, and especially good quality tents.
"These tents are quite comfortable, ventilated and heat resilient," he said, adding that they were designed in a way that ventilation could easily take place inside them.
He said that the tents, along with China-donated canvas, are waterproof due to which the people living in the tent area remained unaffected while the land is still wet, and in case of more rainfall they could easily keep themselves safe from the water.
Khahro said that tents can be completely closed using attached zips, preventing mosquitoes from entering.
According to the local authorities, several other tent areas with China-aided tents were also established in different parts of the province. ■
Flood-affected children are seen at a makeshift shelter built with tents donated by China in flood relief aid, in Matli town of Badin District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province, Sept. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Tang Binhui)
Aerial photo taken on Sept. 29, 2022 shows a makeshift shelter built with tents donated by China in flood relief aid in Matli town of Badin District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province. (Xinhua/Jiang Chao)
Flood-affected children attend a class in a makeshift shelter built with tents donated by China in flood relief aid in Matli town of Badin District in southern Pakistan's Sindh province on Sept. 29, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)
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