PAKISTANI AUTHORITIES believe fresh rainfall has triggered two more waves of flooding already surging through remote areas, inundating more land and swallowing yet more villages.
The new flood surges are sweeping down from mountainous areas in the north, but are expected to reach more highly populated areas in the coming days.
In Sukkur – a district in one of the worst-affected areas – water levels from the first flood surge are expected to reach their peak today, but Sindh province’s irrigation minister, Saifullah Dharejo, warned fresh flooding could follow within days.
“Once this peak passes, another flood is being formed in the mountains, and then a third,” he said. “This is a grave situation.”
Pakistan’s worst-ever flooding has already affected 14 million people, leaving two million homeless and an estimated 1,600 dead. News of the fresh surges came as the UN launched an emergency fundraising appeal for $459 million (€357 million), warning survivors still face life-threatening conditions from disease and food shortages.
The fresh flows of water were caused by rainfall in the mountains in the northwest of the country and the northeastern region of Gilgit. Experts warned the new flooding will prevent vital repairs of embankments, allowing water to reach previously unaffected areas.
“Rainfall [in the north] takes about a week to reach Sukkur,” said Muzammil Qureshi, a retired engineer formerly in charge of irrigation for Sindh province. “All of the country’s five main rivers converge before Sukkur.”
Yesterday 1.13 million cubic feet per second (cusecs) were rushing through the gates of the mile-wide barrage across the river Indus. The Sukkur area has suffered some of the worst flooding. Experts believe that, with the fresh rain, water levels will remain high, perhaps 900,000 cusecs, while the successive wave of flooding could push the flow over one million cusecs again.
The onslaught has caused the banks of dykes to burst, flooding hundreds of thousands of hectares of farm land in Sindh alone. While those breaches remain, the water will continue to fan out and make repairs impossible.
Only from the air does the sheer scale of the disaster, and the remoteness of the villages, become apparent. From a Pakistan army helicopter, water could be seen stretching out for miles – swamp-like in places, like an open sea in others. When the helicopter swooped lower, it became apparent there were still people stranded in the water. Dozens of marooned villages standing on slightly higher ground, with water that looked only waist-high, remained populated.
On raised embankments, built to hold canals, or dirt road, hundreds of people had taken refuge, but they were stranded without food and had nothing to shelter them from the ferocious sun.
While the military continues to rescue people, many of those still in the floods refused to leave, hoping to simply wait until the water recedes.
But the fresh onslaught on its way could mean that survival for those remaining is impossible.– ( Guardianservice)