‘Rains claim 93 lives in Sindh’
Water from the Indus River has entered a housing society illegally built along the riverbank. PHOTO: NNI
The monsoon rains which lashed Sindh throughout the month of July claimed 93 lives, including 47 children, besides damaging 2,165 houses completely and 11,701 partially, a report of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said.
The highest number of deaths was reported from Khairpur district where 25 persons including 17 children, six men and two women are among the deceased.
Some 40 rain-related deaths occurred in the seven districts of Karachi division combined with 10 people died in Malir, seven each in south, six in east, five in central, four in west and one in Keamari. Among these deaths, 22 were children and 17 were men and a woman.
As many as ten people died in Thatta, five in Badin, four in Sanghar, three in Dadu and one each in Sukkur, Naushehro Feroze and Jamshoro districts.
In Shaheed Benazirabad district, 2,030 houses were fully damaged while in Thatta rains partially damaged 9,980 houses and 1,250 houses in Jamshoro.
Although Khairpur alone reported the largest figure of deaths, only five housing units were completely damaged and just one was partially damaged.
According to the initial reports, gathered from just two districts, Shaheed Benazirabad and Thatta, 71,747 acres of standing crops were destroyed by rains including 35,753 in Shaheed Benazirabad and 35,994 in Thatta.
The Badin, Sujawal, Jamshoro, Tando Allahyar, Naushehro Feroze, Mirpurkhas and Khairpur districts where devastation of crops has been widely reported, are still not a part of the PDMA’s report.
The report also omits mention of the extensive damage caused to the livestock as it points out deaths of only 75 animals in Tharparkar and Kambar Shahdadkot.
The rains also reportedly caused huge financial losses to the breeders of sacrificial animals due to a drop in the sale. But this aspect is also not covered in the PDMA report.
The rains also badly damaged three bridges in Karachi and one in Thatta.
A total of 98.5 kilometers of roads were battered with 56.5 kms in Thatta, 25 kms in Jamshoro and 17 kms in Karachi.
The report says that 1,590 people have been shifted to 12 relief camps in Thatta. The government has set up relief camps in many other districts of Sindh, including 71 in Shaheed Benazirabad alone, but as per the report the camps are still vacant.
The PDMA says it has transported 5,680 tents, 15,875 mosquito nets, 2,580 jerry cans, 620 pillows, 520 bedsheets, 410 kitchen sets, 420 folding beds and 110 water coolers, besides various other items, to the relief camps.
The authority’s 62 truck mounted dewatering machines and 61 ground-based dewatering machines have been deployed in the province to pump out the rainwater from submerged areas.
According to Pakistan Meteorological Department, from July 2 to July 28 Karachi received 346.86 mm rain, Naushehro Feroze 535.46 mm, Badin 333.78 mm, Thatta 296.7 mm, Jacobabad 290 mm, Hyderabad 247 mm, Dadu 239 mm, Sukkur 232 mm and Khairpur 227 mm.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2022.