Torrential rains and flooding have killed 81 people over the past two weeks and affected over 300,000, the disaster management agency said on Tuesday, warning of more bad weather to come.
Severe rains which began in mid-July have caused havoc in both the north and south of the country, damaging more than 1,900 houses and injuring dozens of people, a spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.
At least 38 people were killed in worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 19 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, spokesperson Ahmed Kamal said. Eleven people also died in central Punjab, eight in Balochistan and five in Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Fairly widespread thunderstorms, rains with heavy falls (in) scattered places and very heavy falls (in) isolated places” are expected in the coming days, Kamal said.
So far 172,016 people have been evacuated to safer places, he said, adding that rescue teams from the military, provincial governments and NDMA were carrying out “relief and rescue operations” in the affected areas.
Torrential rains have also destroyed infrastructure, sweeping away dozens of roads and bridges in the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while floods have inundated 375 villages in southern Punjab, the NDMA spokesman said.
16 KILLED IN AZAD KASHMIR:
At least 16 were killed as a result of torrential rains and floods in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday.
While trying to cross a flooded stream in Kasgumma, Bhimber district, sources said that a car, with six members of a family, was swept away.
Two others were swept away by speed currents in a flooded stream at the remote village of Badhote Knaiker, while six people were reportedly killed in a roof collapse.
As many as 35 houses were reportedly completely damaged, whereas 87 houses were partially damaged following the heavy rainfall and floods.
The AJK government has already established flood control rooms in all 10 districts in the wake of the floods.
River Indus in high flood:
The Sindh Irrigation Department issued on Tuesday a high-level flood warning at Guddu and Sukkur barrages and said the river is in ‘high flood’ at Chashma due to the current heavy rains.
Nearly 600,000 cusecs of water is passing through the Sukkur and Guddu barrages and the water flow is expected to rise in the next four days, Radio Pakistan quoted the flood control centre as saying.
According to reports, more than 500 villages of Kashmore, Kandhkot, Larkana, Sukkur and Khairpur districts have been inundated. There is medium flood in the river at Kalabagh and Taunsa and low flood at Tarbela, reports said.
River Kabul is in medium flood at Nowshera, while River Jhelum and River Ravi are in low flood at Rasool and Sudhnai respectively, reports added.
A spokesman of Ghotki’s district administration said the army and Rangers have reached Qadipur Bund and are shifting the people from katcha area to safer places as water levels rose to extremely dangerous level.
