Pakistan’s recent torrential floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rains in different parts of the country, killed at least 412 people and injured 1,172 others besides affecting over 8.2 million more, the National Disastrous Management Authority (NDMA) said.
Floods damaged an area of 7.987 million acres and swept away standing cash crops in the affected areas of the two provinces Sindh and Balochistan, NDMA spokesman Ahmad Kamal said. At least 389 people, including 209 men, 93 females and 87 children, were killed and 745 were injured in the country’s southern province of Sindh while floods killed 23 and injured 427 others in southwestern province of Balochistan.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) revealed that 2.7 million children are among the affected flood victims and have been facing many challenges. According to NDMA, floods have affected about 41,334 villages in all the 23 districts of the Sindh province and completely damaged a total of 630,457 houses while another 848,412 houses have suffered partial damage.
More than 87,608 livestock have been perished by floods in Sindh while crops like cotton, banana, dates, chili and sugarcane on 2,800,000 acres have been destroyed or severely affected. The first spell of rain started on Aug. 11 mainly affected seven districts of Sindh province, while an ongoing second spell has hit the entire province, including provincial metropolis Karachi, the business hub of Pakistan.
According to officials of the Meteorological Department of Pakistan, during the four weeks of August and September, rains in Sindh province were the highest ever recorded monsoon heavy rains. NDMA official told that an estimated 709,452 people have been living in some 3,342 makeshift temporary relief camps, including schools and public buildings, across the Sindh.
Some 8.2 million people in different districts of the province have been affected by the floods and thousands of them are camped out on higher ground or on roadsides. Ghulam Mustufa Khaskheli,28, son of Ghulam Mohammad Khaskheli , resident of village Dhani Bux Khaskheli of Taluka Jhuddo drowned in the deep saline rain water near village Sangi on Sunday.
Reports said divers tried to search for his body in the water but failed. He was crossing the flood water when he slipped and drowned. TMA Mirpurkhas sweepers were seen breaking a sewage nullah at different places in the city during the nullah cleaning to drain out stagnant rain and sewage water out of it. Heavy pumping machines were installed at Railway Station Chowk and other places to drain out water from roads and localities. However, dozens of residential areas remained submerged under 2 to 3 feet of water.
The DCO office Mirpurkhas, food department godowns, excise and taxation department office Mirpurkhas, district food controller office Mirpurkhas, EDO health office , Police complex Mirpurkhas, underpass railway, civil hospital Mirpurkhas, DIG house, circuit house, District council office, Anti corruption establishment office, Police line Mirpurkhas, Town police station, director information office, EDO agriculture office, Sindh horticulture research institute Mirpurkhas, district and sessions court, Sessions Judge and civil Judge bungalows, building department office, Government Shah Abdul Lateef science college Mirpurkahs, Government high school Mirpurkhas were also under water.
Mirpurkhas worst affected: Mirpurkhas Citizen Action Committee Chairman Rais Ahmed Khan said district Mirpurkhas was the worst affected district of Sindh during the recent floods. Talking to media, he demanded special attention eb given to the residents of Mirpurkhas including the provision of agricultures of at least RS 5 lakhs without markup, waivers to small businessmen on loans and upto Rs 1 million loans on personal surety to flood victims.
– child malnutrition aggravates
KARACHI – Inability of the flood victims to harvest crops in the swamped lands is feared to intensity child malnutrition in Sindh. “Children in Badin and Khairpur are in desperate need of nutritious food to help them survive this second disaster,” said Alexander Davey, national director, World Vision Pakistan. Talking to APP on Sunday, he said his NGO was in close coordination with Muslim Aid (United Kingdom) and Helping Hands (USA) and has engaged itself with communities, in Badin and Khairpur, that constitute about half of all 5.4 million flood victims.
“Malnutrition that already existed among children in many parts of the province has reached emergency levels after the recent flooding,” he said. In reply to a question, he agreed that malnutrition was closely linked to hygienic practices among the people and therefore equal efforts were being made to sensitise victims about its relevance. Simultaneously a quick, well-coordinated relief effort was urgently needed to reach children and their families who had lost everything, said the activist. “This was extremely relevant as 49 percent of the more than 5.4 million flood victims are women and around five percent of the one million affected households, that is 56,000 (5 percent) households are headed by female,” he said.
He said the number of victims had doubled in the last month only, adding that nearly half a million people have been displaced into camps, half of them children, and the numbers were rising daily. Out of 824,000 displaced people, 66 percent were currently living in temporary settlements and 20.4 percent affected people were living in open air, 34.1 percent were using plastic sheets as shelter and only 0.2 percent were living in a house, he said. APP
