Muhammad Hanif rarely let his youngest son Abid out of his sight.
The poor farmer was devoted to the lively three-year-old: "I was always picking him up and playing with him. He was the baby of the family. I couldn't be without him for five minutes," he said. Now he is without him forever.
Abid died from diarrhoea and gastroenteritis contracted from contaminated water. His parents had nothing else to give him.
"We were drinking contaminated water and eating food washed in that water," Muhammad told me.
"After that he started vomiting. We took him to the doctor, but he didn't improve."
Muhammad is keeping the truth from his older son Hamid - now a lonely five-year-old.
"When he wakes he asks for Abid," he said. "He asks again in the evening. I say 'he's gone to play, and he'll be back soon'."
Marooned villages
Hamid, five, does not know his younger brother has died after drinking contaminated water. The stagnant flood water still surrounds him in Tharparkhar district, in southern Sindh.
It is on both sides of the road where Muhammad and many others are living in crude shelters. Two months on, they don't even have tents.
Muhammad's wretched settlement can only be reached by boat. In his area alone, there are 44 marooned villages.
Parts of Sindh remain hostage to the floods.
full story here
BBC News - Pakistan's Sindh province remains hostage to flood water
The poor farmer was devoted to the lively three-year-old: "I was always picking him up and playing with him. He was the baby of the family. I couldn't be without him for five minutes," he said. Now he is without him forever.
Abid died from diarrhoea and gastroenteritis contracted from contaminated water. His parents had nothing else to give him.
"We were drinking contaminated water and eating food washed in that water," Muhammad told me.
"After that he started vomiting. We took him to the doctor, but he didn't improve."
Muhammad is keeping the truth from his older son Hamid - now a lonely five-year-old.
"When he wakes he asks for Abid," he said. "He asks again in the evening. I say 'he's gone to play, and he'll be back soon'."
Marooned villages
Hamid, five, does not know his younger brother has died after drinking contaminated water. The stagnant flood water still surrounds him in Tharparkhar district, in southern Sindh.
It is on both sides of the road where Muhammad and many others are living in crude shelters. Two months on, they don't even have tents.
Muhammad's wretched settlement can only be reached by boat. In his area alone, there are 44 marooned villages.
Parts of Sindh remain hostage to the floods.
full story here
BBC News - Pakistan's Sindh province remains hostage to flood water
