Video Report: After the Deluge

KARACHI, PAKISTAN — In September, devastating floods ravaged Pakistan’s Sindh region. Heavy monsoon rains and floods have killed at least 759 people, including 319 children, and affected more than 12 million people in Sindh alone. Most of the affectees are now internally displaced because the floods have washed away their homes. Documentary filmmaker Fatima Sheikh interviewed survivors in this original Truthdig video report.

Ali Nawaz Brohi belongs to the Allah Dad Brohi village located in the Nawabshah district of Sindh province. At least 140 members of the Nawaz’s village, including his family, moved to Balochistan’s (another province of Pakistan) Khuda Bakhsh village where their relatives live. Nawaz and other villagers could neither save their livestock nor any other belongings after the water entered their homes. His livelihood depended on farming. However, the natural disaster flooded crops and killed more than 0.4 million livestock in Sindh alone.

Twenty-five-year-old Ashraf Khatoon and her family are flood survivors who have taken refuge in a makeshift camp located in Karachi, a megacity of Pakistan. She belongs to a small village of Qambar Shahdadkot located in Sindh. Her family members worked in rice fields and earned nearly $1.25 per day before the disaster hit the country. However, the floods washed away all the crops and damaged more than 1.8 million houses, snatching their livelihood and leaving Khatoon and her family homeless.