Pakistan fears lake burst in Sindh as water levels go up
MORE THAN 100,000 PREGNANT WOMEN IN THE PROVINCE DISPLACED BY FLOODS
PAKISTANI authorities were struggling to prevent the country’s biggest lake bursting its banks and inundating nearby towns after unprecedented flooding, while the disaster management agency on Monday (5) added more 24 fatalities to its toll.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,314, including 458 children, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said.
The floods have followed record-breaking summer temperatures and the government and the United Nations have both blamed climate change for the extreme weather and the devastation it has brought.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called it “a monsoon on steroids” as the World Health Organization announced a Grade 3 emergency for the floods, its highest level.
Authorities last Sunday (4) breached Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes in the hope of draining enough water to stop the lake bursting its banks and swamping more densely populated areas. But water levels in the lake, to the west of the Indus river in the southern province of Sindh, remain dangerously high.
“The water level at Manchar lake has not come down,” said Jam Khan Shoro, the provincial minister for irrigation. He declined to say if another attempt to drain water from the lake would be made.
The floods have led to a growing humanitarian crisis, with officials especially concerned about the wellbeing of pregnant women and young mothers.
More than 100,000 pregnant women in badly affected Sindh province have been displaced by the floods, with only 891 making it to relief camps, according to data from the provincial government released on Tuesday (6).
The relief effort is a huge burden for an economy already needing help from the International Monetary Fund.
The UN’s World Health Organization said more than 1,460 health centres had been damaged, of which 432 were fully wrecked, the majority of them in the southeastern province of Sindh.
More than 4,500 medical camps have been set up by the WHO and its partners, while more than 230,000 rapid tests for acute watery diarrhoea, malaria, dengue, hepatitis and chikungunya have been distributed.
Such diseases are already circulating in Pakistan, alongside Covid-19, HIV and polio, and “now all these are at risk of getting worse”, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva. “We have already received reports of increased number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea, typhoid, measles and malaria, especially in the worst-affected areas.”
Jasarevic said it was still difficult to get to areas hit hard by the floods, which have submerged a third of the country – an area the size of the United Kingdom.
A delegation of three US lawmakers, who visited the flood-hit areas last Sunday to assess the damage and explore ways of assisting Pakistan in its recovery efforts, met prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, his office said.
Sharif told the lawmakers that given the challenges and enormous resources involved in the reconstruction efforts, “continued support, solidarity and assistance from the international community was critical,” the office said.
Sharif also promised aid donors any funding would be responsibly spent. “I want to give my solemn pledge and solemn commitment... every penny will be spent in a very transparent fashion. Every penny will reach the needy,” he said.
The United Nations has called for $160 million (£138.7m) in aid to help the flood victims, but finance minister Miftah Ismail said the damage was far higher. “The total damage is close to $10 billion, (£8.67bn) perhaps more,” Ismail told CNBC. “Clearly, it is not enough. In spite of meagre resources Pakistan will have to do much of the heavy lifting.”
Nevertheless, help kept pouring in with the foreign ministry reporting arrivals of relief flights on Monday from the United Nations and individual countries, including Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The WHO has delivered $1.5m (£1.3m) in medicines and emergency stockpiles, including tents, water purification kits and oral rehydration sachets. It is appealing for $19 million from donors. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, has launched an air bridge to deliver aid from Dubai.
The first four flights took off on Monday, said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR’s regional director for Asia and the Pacific.
Six other flights are planned, with mattresses, tarpaulins and cooking utensils on board.