Flood water submerges Khairpur Nathan Shah, UN complains of 'stalled' aid
Flood water has submerged Khairpur Nathan Shah town near Sukkur a day after three breaches occurred in the MNV drain.
THATTA:
Flood water has submerged Khairpur Nathan Shah town near Sukkur a day after three breaches occurred in the Main Nara Valley drain.
On Thursday, there were warnings that massive flood tides, surging from Shahdad Kot were heading towards Khairpur Nathan Shah and another flood torrent through breaches of MNV Drain was raging fast towards Khanpur and the Indus Highway.
Residents are shifting to safer places but many of them are stuck in the area due to non-avialability of transport. Reports on Thursday indicated that 70 per cent of the city’s population had relocated to safer places.
The Indus Highway and grid station as well as 50 villages near the town have been severely affected.
Flooding and breach in an MNV drain has hit 12 villages while water is only two kilometers away from Johi. Flood water has also swept into 10 villages in Kali Mori area near Johi.
Water levels in Guddu and Sukkur barrages decline
While flood waters continue to inundate more villages across the southern province of Sindh, water levels at the Guddu and Sukkur Barrages are slowly declining.
Water levels at the Guddu Barrage have decreased by 40,000 cusecs and levels at the Sukkur Barrage have come down by 37,000 cusecs in the last 24 hours.
Inflow at the Guddu Barrage has been recorded at 404,000 cusecs and outflow is at 390,000 cusecs.
Over at the Sukkur Barrage, inflow stands at 447,000 cusecs while outflow is just over 400,000 cusecs.
IDPs start returning home in South Punjab
Over in Punjab, relief activities are underway in flood-hit towns and villages in the southern part of the province.
Residents displaced by the floods have started returning to their towns of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Taunsa, Rohailanwali and Mehmoodkot.
Most of the survivors will be celebrating Eid at the relief camps. There are a growing number of complaints over the shortage of food and medicines at the camps. Survivors have also complained of not having received compensation from the government for the reconstruction of their homes that have been damaged or destroyed.
Officials say the declining trend in water levels will continue further.
International almost stalled: UN
Meanwhile, the UN has said that international aid has almost come to a standstill
Although the initially slow pace of aid had improved since a visit by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in mid-August, the UN said it had "almost stalled" since the beginning of last week, rising from 274 million dollars to 291 million dollars -- about two thirds of aid needs.
"Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale," Manuel Bessler, head of the UN's coordination agency OCHA, said in a statement.
"We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram Mountain Range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south."
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference on Thursday appealed to Muslims everywhere to direct their zakat tithes -- donations required under Islam -- to relief for Pakistan, rather than leave Pakistanis "alone to their fate".
Growing resentment among victims hampering relief efforts
The international Red Cross (ICRC) said growing resentment among flood victims about the pace of aid delivery was hampering the relief effort.
Jacques de Maio, the head of operations for South Asia for ICRC, said it had to halt two distributions recently due to unrest.
Flood water has submerged Khairpur Nathan Shah town near Sukkur a day after three breaches occurred in the Main Nara Valley drain.
On Thursday, there were warnings that massive flood tides, surging from Shahdad Kot were heading towards Khairpur Nathan Shah and another flood torrent through breaches of MNV Drain was raging fast towards Khanpur and the Indus Highway.
Residents are shifting to safer places but many of them are stuck in the area due to non-avialability of transport. Reports on Thursday indicated that 70 per cent of the city’s population had relocated to safer places.
The Indus Highway and grid station as well as 50 villages near the town have been severely affected.
Flooding and breach in an MNV drain has hit 12 villages while water is only two kilometers away from Johi. Flood water has also swept into 10 villages in Kali Mori area near Johi.
Water levels in Guddu and Sukkur barrages decline
While flood waters continue to inundate more villages across the southern province of Sindh, water levels at the Guddu and Sukkur Barrages are slowly declining.
Water levels at the Guddu Barrage have decreased by 40,000 cusecs and levels at the Sukkur Barrage have come down by 37,000 cusecs in the last 24 hours.
Inflow at the Guddu Barrage has been recorded at 404,000 cusecs and outflow is at 390,000 cusecs.
Over at the Sukkur Barrage, inflow stands at 447,000 cusecs while outflow is just over 400,000 cusecs.
IDPs start returning home in South Punjab
Over in Punjab, relief activities are underway in flood-hit towns and villages in the southern part of the province.
Residents displaced by the floods have started returning to their towns of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Taunsa, Rohailanwali and Mehmoodkot.
Most of the survivors will be celebrating Eid at the relief camps. There are a growing number of complaints over the shortage of food and medicines at the camps. Survivors have also complained of not having received compensation from the government for the reconstruction of their homes that have been damaged or destroyed.
Officials say the declining trend in water levels will continue further.
International almost stalled: UN
Meanwhile, the UN has said that international aid has almost come to a standstill
Although the initially slow pace of aid had improved since a visit by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in mid-August, the UN said it had "almost stalled" since the beginning of last week, rising from 274 million dollars to 291 million dollars -- about two thirds of aid needs.
"Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale," Manuel Bessler, head of the UN's coordination agency OCHA, said in a statement.
"We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram Mountain Range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south."
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference on Thursday appealed to Muslims everywhere to direct their zakat tithes -- donations required under Islam -- to relief for Pakistan, rather than leave Pakistanis "alone to their fate".
Growing resentment among victims hampering relief efforts
The international Red Cross (ICRC) said growing resentment among flood victims about the pace of aid delivery was hampering the relief effort.
Jacques de Maio, the head of operations for South Asia for ICRC, said it had to halt two distributions recently due to unrest.