By Professor Dr. Hussain Bux Kolachi Chairman
Department of Community Medicine
LUMHS, Jamshoro
The super flood that ravaged Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoon Khowa provinces entered in the Guddu Barrage of Sindh on 8th August. About 1.2 million cusecs water flowed in the Indus river caused breach near Kashmor at Torri Bund which damaged half of the on the right bank while the flow of Indus crossed Sukkur Moro Bridge and reached Kotri barrage on 17th August and continued rising till the end of August. There was lot of tension in Jamshoro and Hyderabad because the Dykies and Embankment where under wild pressure of Indus water waves beating both banks ruthlessly. During this time heavy monsoon rains lashed and increased the volume of water in this situation. The water flowed to Thatta District Sijawal, Jatti , Shah Bunder and people were marooned. The city of Thatta which was capital of old Sindh for more than 90 years came under threat of flood water. About 4 lakhs people were displaced and were forced to take shelter on the historical Makkli Hills and in all districts. Kashmor, Jecobabad, Shikarpur, Larkana, Qamber, Dadu, Jamshoro, Tando Muhammad Khan and Thatta were hit by super flood forcing 7 million peoples to leave their homes and lands without money, bedding and transport facility. The Jamshoro campus of the Liaquat University on 16th of August was full with IDPs, their number initially was 2,000 reached up to 10,000. The Vice Chancellor of Liaquat University Professor Dr. Noshad Ahmed Shaikh felt the seriousness of the situation and called an emergency meeting on 10th August and constituted a Committee for flood victims in which fund was raised for more than 1 million in that meeting which was donated by Faculty, Paramedics and Staff .
Free medical camps and mobile medical relief camps were organized, the camps were established on 13 different locations on both sides of Indus River right from Latifabad, Sehrishnagar, Qasimabad, Karan Shoro, Sain Dino Malah, Sabzi Mandi , Kolhi GotH and up on the Dadu Sehwan road at Ali Abad and Unerpur . Over 100 doctors, post graduates medical students and specialists participated in the camps while students, paramedics helped in organizing and managing these camps. The Department of Community Medicine was assigned the task to supervise these camps and run mobile medical camps as well as provide health education, clean water and essential medicines and to compile and collect research data on the diseases prevailing in the IDPs. The WHO sent two emergency medical kits with ORS and Chlorine tablets which were distributed to avert the water borne and other vector borne diseases . The LUMHS efforts were supported by the Governor House and relief items form the public sector universities were received by the University. The relief items comprised of medicines, food items and clothes which were distributed among the IDPs. The Ambassador of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia specially invited Professor Dr. Noshad Ahmed Shaikh and donated 4 Trucks of Dates and relief items for the IDPs of LUMHS and gave handsome cash donation. The Philanthropist like Gul Muhammad Motiwala of Karachi contacted Professor Dr. Hussain Bux Kolachi and sent medicines, chlorines, food and sleeping cots for IDPs. The APPNA Doctors of USA also contacted the LUMHS Vice Chancellor and donate $8000 for the IDPs. Dr. Ramzan Unar a Neurologist and LUMHS graduate called on the Vice Chancellor and signed MoU for future collaboration to select a village where housing units will be constructed for rehabilitation. Currently there is flood water in the Manchar Lake and the town of Khairpur Nathan Shah is marooned. Many UCs like Boobak, Talti are under water, the 500 Sq. KM Manchar Lake is full with flood water which is more than 120RL while the embankment capacity is for 112 RL .
The water of Indus and Manchar has been tested with the help of High Tech Laboratory University of Sindh and Water Testing Laboratory of LUMHS Jamshoro which show that flood water has been diluted in the area of Indus River and Manchar Lake and their chemical standard is up to WHO drinking water criteria. However, the germs and bacteriology is the main danger here and cause of water borne diseases.
The LUMHS teams have attended and provided curative healthcare to about 50,000 and preventive care to 70,000 flood victims in the last 45 days. They were looked after by Dr. Faisal Ghani and Professor Hussain Bux Kolachi while other camps were supervised by Professor Munir Junejo and Dr. Aamir Iqbal Memon. In brief LUMHS has provided chlorinated drinking water with the help of MSF Organization to IDPs. more than 2 million liters, and have provided healthcare both preventive, promotive, curative and health education to over 130,000 IDPs which is the largest service in the province by any medical University. Common disease seen were Diarrhea 30% cases, Fever/Malaria 15%, Skin infection 10%, Eye infection 10%, Ear Infection 10%, ARI 15% and Mal Nutrition 10%. The personal efforts of Professor Noshad Ahmed Sheikh the Vice Chancellor and the efforts of Mr. Muhammad Saleh Rajar, Registrar LUMHS, Professor Shafi Muhammad Jatoi and the department of Community Medicine entire staff under Professor Dr. Hussain Bux Kolachi worked in team and have guided students not only in their training but how to address disaster. The other universities and HEC should adopt the LUMHS model of Flood Victim and relief care.