OLD WAYS OF LIFE SWEPT AWAY BY FLOODS

Aug 28, 2010, STRAITS TIMES


Old ways of life swept away by floods

Pakistani survivors return home to ruins

Mr Anar Gul and his son collecting belongings on Thursday from the rubble of their house, which was demolished by heavy floods in Azakhel, Nowshera, in north-west Pakistan. It is the same scene for many other survivors. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

GRAMMAR

AZAKHEL (PAKISTAN): This is what Mr Anar Gul found when he came home: Eight mattresses 1. _______(cover) with polyester swirls, a dozen blankets, a broken tape player and a large metal box buried deep in the mud.

After more than 30 years of 2. _______(carve) out the semblance of a working-class life, this junk spread out to dry on the wreckage of his house 3. ______(be) now all Mr Gul had.

'This is everything,' he said, waving his hands at the muck and the garbage. The former woodcutter 4. ________(build) a mud-walled house with three bedrooms, a guest room and a bathroom.

Nearly a month after floods first 5. _______(begin) battering Pakistan, and as waters still sweep through the south, the first victims are returning home. Millions of people may soon find that, like Mr Gul, their old lives have disappeared.

'We understand the devastation is so intense that even the government cannot help everyone,' said Mr Gul, who 6. ________(add) that he was about 70 years old. 'But the government 7. _______(need) to help us.'

The floods began here, in north-western Pakistan, late last month when the annual monsoon rains began falling. Azakhel, a small town outside the city of Nowshera, saw thousands of homes 8. _______(submerge). Most people 9. _______(flee) by the end of last month and came back only in the last week or so.

Rivers 10. ______(swell) by rain that fell in the mountainous north 11. ______(flow) southward, ravaging a massive swathe of the agricultural heartland. Only in the coming days are floodwaters expected to fully drain into the Arabian Sea.

More than 1,500 people 12. ________(die), most of whom perished in flash floods in the initial days. The death toll does not reflect the scale of the crisis, with millions of hectares under water and the agricultural economy 13. ________(devastate).

More than eight million people need emergency assistance, and the international community 14. _________(pledge) hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

Mr Rahimullah Yousafzai, a prominent Pakistani writer, said the promises of international aid could backfire.

It is not yet clear what help people will get.

The Pakistani government 15. _______(promise) 20,000 rupees (S$320) to families affected by the floods, with a presidential spokesman calling the payment 'initial assistance'.

Most Pakistanis are, however, distrustful of their government.

Mr Yousafzai said 16. _______(squabble) over aid 17. ________(be+lead) to ethnic and regional tensions and possibly anti- government unrest.

Government officials, for the most part, are nowhere to be 18. ________(see).

'The government hasn't even bothered to ask if we are living or dying,' said Mr Karim Baksh, a retired bureaucrat with the state electricity company. His home in Nowshera was all but 19. ______(level) by floodwaters.

His neighbour, 23-year-old business student Yasir Naseer, 20. _______(urge) international aid groups to distribute help on their own.

'Don't give any cash or anything to our government officials. They cannot be trusted.'

EDITING: The following words are wrongly spelt. Write the correct answer on the lines.

1. rabble ___________

2. devastetain ____________

3. domelished ____________

4. reveging __________

5. missive sweatha ___________ __________

6. amergancy essistence _________ __________



ANSWERS

Grammar – 1. covered 2. covering 3. was 4. had built

5. began 6. added 7. needs 8. submerged 9. had fled

10. swollen 11. had flowed 12. have died 13. devastated

14. has pledged 15. has promised 16. squabbling

17. could had 18. seen 19. leveled 20. urged