The monsoons were a scary thing for us. Come the end of May, we would start living in fear of the floods entering our house and destroying everything. Even though this takes place every year, one does not get used to it. We would pray that the flood won’t come creeping in at night and take away our children, cattle, and our houses. During those times, lightning in the hills would scare us. We lived under a lot of stress during those months. Our grandfathers, grandmothers, our fathers and our mothers, all lived under this stress. Now it’s our turn and we are afraid that the same thing will happen to our children too.
What the Community-Based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS) has truly done is to reduce our stress. Our men patrolling the river for signs of rising water level has finally come to an end. As soon as the water level breaches the risk point in the Khando River, we get information at least two–three hours in advance that a flood might be underway. That allows us time to think, be alert, gather our family together, bind our possessions and documents, and then transport our cattle to a higher ground. This way we can also find a safe place to take refuge. As long as we are alive, we can still rebuild. As long as we are alive, there is always hope.
The CBFEWS is installed at the highway bridge in Rupani. That is where the caretaker of the system also lives who is in charge of letting me know as soon as the alarm rings. Then I go around the village telling everyone that the flood is approaching. I tell them to be alert and move to safer grounds. The news spreads fast. And people’s lives are saved.
