DADU: Six weeks after the start of the devastating floods, waters pouring into Manchar Lake are threatening several towns and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee, officials said on Monday.
As floodwaters make their way to the Arabian Sea, new towns in Sindh are being inundated as embankments constructed to protect cities and towns in the traditional flood plains are now channeling water into new areas, including Manchar Lake.
Manchar mounted to at least 119 feet – just short of two feet of its water-containing capacity. The flow from various canals has submerged at least 42 villages including Juhi and Sehwan’s large cities Channi, Jhangara and Bajara.
Tens of thousands of people have fled towns in Dadu district, and officials said more were asked to leave after water, flowing from a breached embankment, reached a dangerous point in the lake, Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake.
“Our entire concentration is now on Dadu district as the water is just a few inches from overtopping the Manchar Lake that could threaten many towns,” the additional relief commissioner, Riaz Ahmed Soomro, told a news agency.
Officials say several towns around the lake including Bhon and Jhingira are in danger of inundation, threatening an estimated 250,000 people.
The surge in Manchar Lake is also threatening Bobak city, Sehwan airport, Sehwan Hyderabad and Indus Highway with inundation. Irrigation department officials say that a 1.5 kilometre embankment stretching from Zero Point to RD 97 is being raised to bolster its defences.
“All my seven brothers and their families are now dependent on me as they are all farmers and floods have washed away their lands and crops,” said Abdul Ghani, a school teacher, whose village upstream from Manchar Lake has already flooded.
The floods are Pakistan’s worst-ever natural disaster in terms of damage, with more than six million people forced from their home and 20 million people affected.
The calamity has killed more than 1,750 people, and aid agencies have warned that millions more are still at risk of death if emergency food and shelter are not provided.
The government estimates losses at $43 billion and says the gross domestic product could be around 2.5 per cent, from the original target of 4.5 per cent for the 2010/11 (July-June) fiscal year.
As well as grappling with economic problems, Pakistan faces a new wave of suicide and bomb attacks carried out by pro-Taliban militants after a lull during the floods.
More than 160 people have been killed attacks on security forces in the past two weeks in the country, whose support is seen as crucial for US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2010.
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