Relief reaches interior Sindh as floodwaters recede slower than hoped

In Dadu and Qambar Shahdadkot, the water has stopped rising. That is the only comfort officials would offer on Monday as they described a relief operation that is finally moving — and a recovery that will take months.

More than 80,000 people remain in temporary camps along the Indus after a late-August monsoon pulse overtopped embankments already weakened by last year’s rains. The National Disaster Management Authority said 42 boats and 18 army engineering teams were working overnight to keep the remaining breaches from widening.

What is arriving — and what is not

Food packets and bottled water reached Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah before noon. Medicines, mosquito nets, and fodder for livestock are still short. Provincial health teams reported a rise in skin infections and diarrhoea, a pattern familiar from 2022, though officials said they were better stocked this time.

People do not want another speech. They want the road back, the school dry, and a date they can trust.— A camp organiser in Johi

Why the water is lingering

Engineers point to two problems. First, several natural drainage paths were blocked by illegal construction after the last flood season. Second, upstream releases from reservoirs were timed for power generation rather than the downstream peak. The irrigation department said it would publish a revised release calendar this week.

• Camps remain open in Dadu, Qambar Shahdadkot, and parts of Larkana.
• NDMA is coordinating with the World Food Programme on a 14-day ration cycle.
• Schools in the worst-hit union councils will stay closed until 15 September.

What happens next

The federal cabinet is expected to approve a supplementary grant for embankment repair on Wednesday. For families still sleeping on raised berms, that date is abstract. The practical question is whether the next weather system — due over southern Sindh by the weekend — finds them still in the open.