Thousands rescued as rivers’ banks burst

The Daily Times, Pakistan, Monday, August 09, 2010

* NDMA says thousands of people evacuated overnight

* Floodwater inundate over 700 villages in Khairpur

* Rangers, irrigation officials patrolling along Indus River

SUKKUR:

Troops, spearheading rescue and relief efforts in the country’s worst-ever floods in 80 years, evacuated several thousand people in Sindh and Punjab overnight, as floodwaters burst through the embankments of rivers.

The government has been overwhelmed by the disaster, which has killed over 1,600 people, disrupted 12 million lives and ruined many crops vital for the economy.

Evacuation: Saleh Farooqi, director general of the National Disaster Management Authority in Sindh, told Reuters that up to 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in Punjab, and several thousand in Sindh. Rescue efforts were still underway.

Foreign aid organisations said the weather had hampered relief efforts and the floods had wiped out some of their supplies.

Many people are still stranded, surrounded by huge tracts of water and more heavy rains are expected.

The Indus River was at high flood level with 1.1million cusecs of water passing through the Guddu Barrage and water outflow of almost same volume at the Sukkur Barrage.

Kotri will get a water outflow of 700,000 to 800,000 cusecs between August 11 and 12.

In Khairpur, over 700 villages of the katcha areas of Indus River have been inundated during the last three days and the water level is increasing further.

All the villages of the katchha area of Indus, from Baberloi to Sagyoon, Khairpur, Kingri, Gambat and Taluka Sonbhodero have been inundated.

Khairpur DCO Muhammad Abbas Baloch, DPO Pir Muhammad Shah along with army, navy and other administrative officials visited the Jamshed spur, Faridabad spur, Ulra Jagir spur and reviewed the arrangements.

Patrol: Rangers and irrigation officials were patrolling sensitive points and the army had made arrangements to protect spurs at Faridabad, Ulra Jagir and Jamshed Lope in Khairpur.

Reports said floodwater entered Goth Sommer Mallah at Jamshed Lope and more than 30,000 people were likely to be affected by the potential flooding at Nusrat embankment, Aqil Agani embankment and Puranaabad areas of Larkana, while over 15,000 people had been evacuated to safer places from Khairpur and Larkana districts. agencies

Landslides pile misery on flood-devastated Pakistan

AFP, August 8, 2010

Hasan Mansoor

Landslides have worsened Pakistan's grim flood death toll, cutting off roads and hampering aid efforts as critics of the absent and unpopular president liken the disaster to Hurricane Katrina.

The entire Swat valley was cut off at the weekend as washed-out roads in the northwest made ground access to many of the country's 15 million flood victims impossible, and many helicopters were unable to fly as heavy rains persisted.

Nine more people were reported killed in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the floods, which the UN estimates have claimed at least 1,600 lives.

In the far north of the country, 28 bodies were recovered from rubble after landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan province caused houses to collapse Saturday.

Administrative official Mohammad Ali Yougwi said up to 40 people were feared dead after the landslides hit residents living at the bottom of a mountain in the town of Skardu.

With the floods sweeping south, rescuers also rushed to evacuate thousands of families in the southern farming belt of Sindh, where officials feared the deluge could burst the banks of the swollen Indus river.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited flood-hit areas of Sindh on Sunday, calling again for international aid as he said the disaster had spiralled beyond the government's ability to respond.

"Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us, we are doing what we can," he told reporters.

"The government has done everything possible but it is beyond our capacity, we are facing an extremely difficult situation."

Foreign donors including the United States have pledged tens of millions of dollars in aid but on the ground, Islamic charities with suspected extremist links have been far more visible in the relief effort than the government.

Survivors have lashed out at authorities for failing to come to their rescue, piling pressure on a cash-strapped administration straining to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis.

President Asif Ali Zardari has been singled out for scorn after pressing ahead with a visit to France and Britain at the height of the disaster.

Critics, including his estranged niece Fatima Bhutto, claim he has badly miscalculated and should have cut short his visit as the two-week-old crisis unfolded.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Bhutto compared Zardari's absence from Pakistan during the floods with the sluggish response by then US president George W. Bush when Hurricane Katrina submerged New Orleans in 2005.

"The only thing (he) seems to have accomplished was to expose the vast unpopularity of his regime," she told the British news channel.

"He managed some photo opportunities, he visited a private property of his in France and he got two shoes thrown at him in Birmingham. That's all he is coming back to Pakistan with."

Zardari was dogged by hundreds of protesters at a rally for British Pakistanis in the city of Birmingham Saturday organised by his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Journalists were barred from the event, but a PPP spokesman told AFP that Zardari had defended his handling of the crisis and stressed that Prime Minister Gilani was "the chief executive, because he's got all the powers".

But anger at the authorities is intense among flood victims, and the situation has been worsening in the cut-off Swat valley as residents complain about severe food and fuel shortages.

"There is no petrol in the pumps and no food in the shops. The government is doing nothing for us," Malik Amir Zada, a Swat resident, told AFP by telephone.