Landowners accused of diverting floods to villages

ISLAMABAD: Wealthy landowners have allegedly diverted waters from the country's devastating floods away from their own properties and into villages, Pakistan's UN ambassador said Thursday.

Abdullah Hussain Haroon called for an inquiry into claims that embankments had been allowed to burst to protect commercial crops.

"Over the years, one has seen with the lack of floods, those areas normally set aside for floods have come under irrigation of the powerful and rich," Haroon told the BBC's HardTalk programme. "It is suggested in some areas, those to be protected were allowed, had allowed, levies to be burst on opposite sides to take the water away. If that is happening the government should be enquiring."

A month of catastrophic flooding has killed 1,760 people and affected more than 18 million, according to the UN, and large areas of Pakistan, especially in the southern province of Sindh, remain under water. More than 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres) of productive farmland have been destroyed by the floods.