Nearly half a million ordered to evacuate as flood threatens Sindh

NDMA said 1,600 people have been confirmed dead and 2,366 wounded throughout Pakistan due to the floods.

HYDERABAD: Nearly half a million people have been ordered to evacuate towns on Thursday as rising floods threaten further havoc in a country straining to cope after its worst humanitarian disaster.

The catastrophe has affected more than 17 million people, while officials warn that millions are at risk from water-borne diseases and food shortages.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 1,600 people have been confirmed dead and 2,366 wounded throughout Pakistan's four provinces, Indian Kashmir and the northern district of Gilgit-Baltistan.

As part of the ongoing rescue and relief efforts, the NDMA has so far distributed about 200,000 tents in the affected areas while more than 800,000 people have been shifted to safer locations.

Officials from the authority also reported that a C-130 airplane was not able to leave for Gilgit due to bad weather. Meanwhile Pakistan army engineers have opened the Gilgit-Hunza, Astur-Gilgit and Gilgit-Gazar roads for traffic.

Sindh

The floods have washed away huge swathes of the rich farmland on which the country's struggling economy depends, a senior administration official warned that fresh floods threaten three towns.

"We have warned people of Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Daro towns to leave for safer places in view of possible flooding there," Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro, the senior official in Thatta district informed.

"Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Daro towns have an approximate population of 400,000," he said.

Several villages have been inundated as a hundred foot breach has appeared in the Sarjani dyke in Almu area near Thatta. The dyke breached last night and submerged Soomro Goth, Aalmu Goth and many other nearby villages.

The residents of Sajawal, Mirpur Bhatoro and Daro are also in danger if the breach is not filled immediately. People of the affected villages are leaving for Thatta to look for shelter.

Pakistan Navy has said that it has deployed 35 boats, 2 hovercrafts and 2 helicopters for a rescue operation. Meanwhile, 50 personnel are working to plug the breach in Sajawal.

The Sindh irrigation minister said that waters were also mounting pressure on a protective embankment in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village, where former leaders Benazir Bhutto and her father, as well as her two younger brothers, are buried.

The United Nations warned that 800,000 people in desperate need of aid had been cut off by the deluge across the country and appealed for more helicopters to deliver supplies to those people reachable only by air.

Authorities were also battling to save the city of Shahdadkot from surging waters after most of its 100,000 residents had been moved to safety.

Rescuers safely evacuated 90 per cent of people from the nearby flooded town of Qubo Saeed Khan. Efforts were being made, however, to rescue thousands of others stranded in at least 25 villages surrounding the town.

In Kotri, the river had swollen from its normal width of 200 to 300 metres to almost 3.5 kilometres (two miles), according to an army spokesman.

Punjab

The water level in River Sutlej is continuously rising with several villages near Head Sulemanki are completely flooded as locals have started evacuating to safer areas.

The inflow of water in River Sutlej currently stands at 62,000 cusecs. The suburbs of Haveli Lakhan have been flooded and agricultural lands along the river banks in Kasur have also been submerged.

According to DOR Kasur Shujaa Qutab Bhatti, villages near Kasur including Chanda Singh Wala, Masnay Kay, Gatti Kallinger and Dhoop Sari have been evacuated while evacuation from villages near Head Sulemanki is underway.