While officials hope cutting the sides of Manchar Lake will protect about half a million people living in Sehwan town and Bhan Saeedabad town, villages home to 150,000 people are in the path of the diverted water. The Sindh province chief minister’s hometown was among the affected villages, whose residents were warned to evacuate immediately, according to the provincial information minister. More than 1,300 people have died and millions have lost their homes in floods caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan this year, which many experts have blamed on climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. He plans to visit flood-affected areas on September 9. Several countries have flown in supplies, but the Pakistani government has called for even more aid, faced with the enormous task of feeding and housing the affected, as well as protecting them from water-borne diseases. While the floods have affected much of the country, the province of Sindh has been the worst hit. With forecasters predicting more rainfall in the coming days, including in Sindh’s Manchar Lake, and its level already rising, authorities ordered the release of water from it. Sindh Chief Minister Murat Ali Shah made the call even though his village could be flooded, said Sarjil Inam Memon, the provincial information minister. The government helped residents of villages in the path of the waters to evacuate early, Memon said. The hope was that the water, once released, would flow into the nearby Indus River, but the lake’s level continued to rise even after the cut-off, according to Fariduddin Mustafa, administrator of Jamshoro district, where the affected villages are located. Authorities have also warned residents of neighboring Dadu district that they may be at risk of more flooding in the coming days. While the release valve was set up in one area, army engineers worked elsewhere to strengthen the banks of Lake Manchar, which is the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan and one of the largest in Asia. In its latest report, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority put the death toll since mid-June – when monsoon rains began weeks earlier than usual – at 1,314, as more deaths were reported than those affected by the floods. areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces. . According to the report, 458 children were among the dead. Rescue operations continued on Sunday with troops and volunteers using helicopters and boats to ferry people stranded from flooded areas to relief camps, the authority said. Tens of thousands of people already live in such camps, and thousands more have taken refuge on roadsides on higher ground. Hira Ikram, a doctor at a camp set up by the British Islamic Mission charity in Sukkur, said many people had scabies, gastrointestinal infections and fever. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who has been visiting flood-hit areas and relief camps daily, called for more international aid on Sunday. “With over 400 (children) dead they make up a third of the total number of dead. Now at even greater risk from water-borne diseases, UNICEF and other global agencies should help,” he tweeted. UNICEF, in fact, delivered tons of medicine, medical supplies, water purification tablets and nutritional supplements to Pakistan on Sunday. The Alkidmat Foundation, a welfare organization, said its volunteers used boats to deliver ready meals and other aid to residents as well as animal feed on a small island in the Indus. The group also distributed food and items needed by those living on the roadside. In the country’s northwest, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial disaster management authority warned of more rain, possible flash floods and landslides in the coming week in Malakand and Hazara regions. Taimur Khan, a spokesman for the authority, urged residents on Sunday not to go to any of the areas that have already been flooded in recent weeks. Initial government estimates put the disaster at $10 billion in damage, but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Saturday “the scale of the disaster is enormous and requires a massive humanitarian response for 33 million people.”
Associated Press reporters Mohammad Farooq in Sukkur, Pakistan. Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.
