Thatta and Badin as well as the coastal belt of Karachi faced the cyclone and flash-flood threat. People were moved to temporary shelters and government buildings. Despite being closer to the urban areas, the authorities still failed to provide efficient facilities to the population.
According to news reports, most people refused to use the government’s tents and preferred staying with their relatives. One reason for this behaviour is the inadequacy of the concerned authorities and lack of foresight in such situations. It is always problematic to make people understand the need to move to a safer place, as they are attached to their homes and also fear for their belongings being stolen or ransacked even in a calamity. Moreover, past incidents have proven true such fears, where households have been ravaged by marauding mobs during or after a disaster.
Another reason people refuse are the deplorable conditions that are kept at any temporary camp site or government buildings. People who were living in proper houses are expected to live-in together in government buildings, while sharing everything communally and without any decent amount of privacy. These circumstances are discouraging for people with large families, especially if they have young daughters or sisters.
Under these circumstances it becomes necessary for the government to not only make the public aware of their safety, but also assure of reducing the losses to the minimum. In general there is also a need to provide respectable accommodations or even tents that give people privacy to a certain extent.
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