Men escape floodwaters in Karachi, Pakistan
Flash floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across Pakistan, killing more than 50 people and leaving hundreds of families displaced.
Figures released by the government yesterday showed at least 17 people were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 10 people in Balochistan, 17 in Sindh, and six people in Punjab province. An additional 17 people were killed elsewhere in the country, according to Nadeem Khan, Assistant Director of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Heavy rains flooded the Indus River in Dera Islmail Khan District, inundating around 300 houses and displacing thousands of people,” he said. “Over 100 houses, one bridge, nine shops, nine vehicles and five schools have been washed away in Chitral’s mountainous areas.”
The PDMA, he said, has dispatched 600 tents, food items, medicines and blankets to affected areas.
Saif ur Rehman, manager of emergency control at PDMA in Balochistan, also confirmed the death of 10 people in rain-related accidents across the province.
A muddy house collapsed in Hub town of Lasbela district in Balochistan, killing four children and one woman. In a separate roof collapse in Khuzdar district, three people, including two women and one child, died, while another man was killed after his car was washed away by flash floods in Loralai.
“We have sent five trucks loaded with tents, flood packets, mosquito tents, pulses, blankets and water pumps in the flood-hit areas of Loralai, Jhal Magsi, Sibi and Naseerabad,” Rehman said. “Things are now under control and the water level has also started to recede in Jhal Magsi.”
Heavy showers battered Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh province at the weekend, prompting authorities to call in the army for rescue and relief operations. The two-day death toll in Karachi stood at 17 with most of the victims identified as children. Most of the deaths were the result of electrocution and roof collapses.
Karachi received 115mm of rain, according to the Meteorological Department. In Sialkot, heavy downpours submerged many villages and destroyed hundreds of acres of cotton and rice crops.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s meteorological center issued a flood warning for the hills of Balochistan and Larkana, Karachi and Hyderabad divisions of Sindh during the next 24 hours.
In 2010, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was struck by the worst floods in the country’s history, killing close to 2,000 people and directly affecting about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure. In 2012 another 600 people lost their lives in devastating floods, according to a report issued by the National Disaster Management Authority.