PAKISTAN SCRAMBLED to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents from the path of floods yesterday as swelling rivers pushed the number of people hit by the disaster above four million.
Towns and villages in Sindh, Pakistan’s southernmost province, are braced for the arrival of a vast body of water that wreaked havoc in the northwest before deluging Punjab, the country’s breadbasket.
Emergency officials believe at least half a million people could be at risk of flooding this weekend as waters surging from the bloated Indus river sweep across Sindh’s floodplains.
Families fleeing Punjab waded waist-deep through brown water yesterday, or piled belongings into cars and donkey carts as they trudged through the rain.
“My father is still trapped in his house. My whole village has been inundated,” Abid Hussain, a labourer, told Reuters.
In Sindh, some residents refused to leave their homes, preferring to brave the encroaching water rather than join the exodus.
The rapidly growing crisis has overwhelmed the weak coalition government of Asif Ali Zardari, who has faced fresh criticism for visiting France and the UK as his countrymen faced the worst floods in 80 years. Aid workers estimate that at least 1,500 people have been killed, scores of roads and bridges destroyed and countless harvests lost, visiting fresh misery on a country battling a protracted Taliban insurgency.
“There is the risk that many of the dams could break, in which case hundreds of thousands more people would be affected,” said Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the United Nations in Islamabad.
Pakistan’s military says it has evacuated more than 75,000 stranded victims, but many survivors complain that they have yet to receive help from the state. Flood water has soaked food stocks in many areas.
The US, which is seeking to overcome widespread anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and to win greater support for its campaign in Afghanistan, has been a major part of the international response. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)
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