Gwadar people 'can neither leave homes nor wait for authorities any longer'

Mohalla Band residents tell miseries, administrative negligence in calamity-hit port city

Waqas Alam Angaria

March 02, 2024

Children sit near a destroyed structure in Gwadar, on March 1, 2024, in this still taken from a video. — Reporter

Water is stagnant at a residential area where downpours destroyed homes in Gwadar, on March 1, 2024, in this still taken from a video. — Reporter — Children sit near a destroyed structure in Gwadar, on March 1, 2024, in this still taken from a video. — Reporter

Residents of the Mohalla Band area in Gwadar — a port city in Balochistan on the shores of the Arabian Sea — are still awaiting government assistance, where homes sank, and the graveyard of Mohalla Banda is also submerged due to floods.

Habib, a resident of the affected area, has lost his home and his father's grave.

The old Gwadar City is now populated inward from the coastal area. After recent floods, the Mohallah Band area of the old city is no longer suitable for living.

Rain-affected citizen, Habib, speaks to Geo News in Gwadar, on March 1, 2024. — Reporter

Water from drains and waste has entered homes, affecting many people. In such circumstances, residents are saving their lives, and Habib from Mohalla Band has stepped out of his house to restore his father's grave.

“This flood destroys my father’s grave which needs to be restored. My house is drowned too but we are still alive and will somehow find a solution, however, the deceased ones cannot,” the citizen said emotionally.

“If I don’t repair his grave then this last memory [of my father] will be completely vanished.”

Habib is among several residents of the area who suffered the disastrous rainfall this winter season, and waiting for an effective response from the higher authorities which declared the entire port city calamity-hit.

The residents who are desperately seeking assistance say their area was affected due to the flow of rainwater from three spots together but not a single step was taken to stop the drainage into the populated spots.

“We can neither leave our homes nor wait for the authorities any longer,” they told Geo News as several people came out of their houses to tell their miseries which exposes extreme administrative negligence adding to their troubles.

Slamming the government’s insufficient response to disasters, a resident lamented, "Gwadar has been struck by a calamity but the deputy commissioner says the destruction is not large-scale. They are all telling lies."

Gwadar — a deep water seaport that could change Pakistan’s fate after being used for global trade — is picturing a very different angle after recent floods which left several populated areas vacant and inundated with floodwater and waste, and requires an immediate response and rehabilitation.