Miracle of being active!

This story has been contributed by one of our Active Citizens Mr. M. Moosa Rind. He tells us of the time when his village was hit by the floods (the disastrous last Summer's floods in Pakistan) and how he and his fellow Active Citizens struggled to save their village instead of simply deserting it. Read the story as he tells us:

The Irrigation Department Sindh breached the Johi Canal at Kali Mori to drain the floodwater, gushing from Tori Bund breaches, in the Manchar Lake. Due to the breach, floodwater was rapidly advancing towards Johi town and adjoining villages. Instead of making arrangements for transport to shift the people to safer places and strengthen protective embankment (ring bund/levee) of Johi City where people of surrounding areas had taken refuge after being inundated, District Coordinator Officer and Federal Minister MNA Rafiq Jamali announced that the city should be evacuated right away. This situation created a huge panic among citizens as they didn’t know what to do at such a short notice.

The Johi is about 320 kilometres north of main southern port city Karachi.

With help of local water experts and irrigation officials, I assessed the situation and based on that decided to remain in the city and to strengthen the ring bund. I formed a group of friends - Qurban Khokhar, Ghulam Qadir Lighari and Dr. Ibrahim Rind - and started making announcements from the loud speakers in the mosques and on rickshaws. We mobilized citizens to come out of their homes and support us in making the bund strong.

Luckily, people responded to our appeal very positively and all kinds of help started pouring in from everyone; people donated materials, labourers, money, food, etc, and they all volunteered and gathered at different points of the bund. The ring levee spanned over 10-11 km square feet, and there were mainly 12 points where citizens were monitoring the water level 24 hours and were raising the bund accordingly. This situation continued for a month and we kept strong vigilance over the water; we ate, slept and even offered Eid prayer at the bund!!

Of course, there were moments of desperation but people’s trust and encouragement helped us in overcoming it. When local government threatened us and moved away all heavy machinery and left us to fend for ourselves, we were a bit nervous and anxious, but when a blacksmith who deals with iron tools for farmers donated 60 spades available in his shop and asked us to continue working, we really felt our spirit uplifted!!

Thus, our long and strenuous struggle paid off and we successfully saved the city from floodwater just by being active, and we now believe that we can change the fate our citizens if we continue to remain active!

Now, more than dozens national and international news papers like English, Urdu and Sindhi wrote detail stories about our struggle with details about my leadership role too.