Lunda village in Charsadda village was not accessible due to devastating floods during my last visit to Khyber Pukhtoun Khawaa about 5 weeks ago. Infect I couldn’t even enter Charsadda or Peshawar due to lack of access to these cities. Waters have now receded in Lunda village. The main road from Charsadda is now open to the traffic once again. 80% of the houses mostly made up of bricks and clay have collapsed in Lunda. During the rescue efforts, houses were vacated on flood warnings but nothing exists any more at those places. Many flood affectes found rubble but not their homes when they got back into Lunda village.

None among survivors had imagined last year that they would have to spend Eid in the ruins. While men had strong nerves to give vent to their feelings, women could not speak more; they failed to control their emotions.

One such 68 years women was Bachkhel who could not hold back her tears which started rolling downing her old cheeks. I meet her in the middle of Lunda village. She was busy clearing the rubble of what used to be her home.

 

Catastrophe that hit her home in the shape of flood in Lunda, has destroyed her home which took her only son Sayed Ul Haq decades to build. She only had 1 room and a kitchen surrounded by a boundary wall. She had no choice but to escape from her flooded village with her 5 grandchildren and 8 months pregnant daughter-in-law. She landed in a camp about 5 km from Lunda only at the mercy of Allah Almighty.

Bachkhel, when I asked about her son she wept for a couple of minutes then looked at her grandchildren and said “we will survive; we will rebuild our home and lives. We have very strong faith in Allah.” She looked at her 20 days old daughter born in the camp and said “She is a little angel but I don’t know what future holds for her”.

The outer wall of Bachkhel’s house was made of bricks and cement but even it could not face the wrath of flood. “We are poor people and cannot hire masons or labourers to do our work. We do not have any savings that we can use to pay the labourer to clear the rubble. “

Bachkhel’s son worked as a labourer in Islamabad. He was in a state of shock when he returned to Lunda first time after the floods and found rubble but not his home.

The children remained busy chasing each other around the ruins, some watching and fascinated by Islamic Relief’s hired tractor clearing the streets in the village. Islamic Relief distributed Eid gifts and sweets in Lunda village on Eid day. I prayed my Eid prayers in this village and helped Islamic Relief team with distribution of Eid gifts.  With the financial support from our donors we manage to distribute food and non-food items including hygiene kits in this village.  Our team was busy yesterday in planning for rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, ready to start constructing 130 permanent houses in Lunda. Clean water, drainage system, education facilities will also be provided in Lunda by Islamic Relief.