Kothri Bridge

I visited Kothri Bridge and its adjoining areas on Saturday, one day before the villages there were hit by the flood. It was a depressing sight to experience, as on the way to the city, when you were enjoying the music and having fun with your friends; there were hundreds of people who were sitting right under the sun, waiting for someone to come and feed them.

The other sad thing to witness was how the household items, cattle along with the family members were all stuffed in a truck or a loader and were being transported.

We had left Karachi after emergency was declared at the Kothri city. The police would not let us in the city, but only after they realized (read: thought) that we were covering for some media channel, we were allowed in. Trees looked like bushes, one wall or half of the house was what remained standing with no belonging inside.

On the way back at Super Highway, a government relief camp was set up providing food and blankets to the IDPs. Trucks loaded with cattle and household were being unloaded at different vacant areas at super highway.

At Gujju, National Highway a group of families who were affected not by flood but early rains had been helped by the students of our department to rebuild their huts and houses higher from the ground level keeping the low budget in mind. When we revisited them during our visit to Kothri, they felt delighted but were again worried about the upcoming-flood. The most important factor that we witnessed was that the affected people are ready to help themselves, even though all of them are not ready to go back, but still there are some who want to return to their homes.