QUETTA/KARACHI: The military joined efforts on Tuesday to help people affected by more than five weeks of monsoon rains and flash flooding across Pakistan
A weather emergency was declared in Karachi on Monday as heavier-than-usual monsoon rains continue to lash the nation’s biggest city, flooding homes and making streets impassable.
Sindh government announced a public holiday Monday in Karachi and Hyderabad in a bid to avert flood chaos, but low-lying areas — already drenched by weeks of heavy rain — were soon the scenes of devastation.
Particularly hard-hit was the volatile, impoverished Balochistan where by Saturday 99 people died in rain-related incidents and subsequent flooding.
“Pakistan Army emergency response teams are consistently busy in dewatering and supplying basic food necessities and medical care to [the] affected population,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said.
Dewatering teams are carrying out flood relief operations in Jamshoro district, Gharo grid station in Thatta, Karachi (south) including Shahrah-i-Faisal and Nipa Chowrangi, and Lasbela, Turbat and Quetta in Balochistan.
Pakistan Army teams established relief camps including medical facilities and distributed necessary food and ration among the local residents, the statement added.
“Various standby and response teams are stationed at various locations in Sindh and Balochistan for relief activities and to counter any emergency situation due to flooding,” it added.
Army troops and mobile medical teams provided relief goods and free medicines to people in Jamshoro, Gharo, Keamari and Nipa Chowrangi. Medical teams also offered medical assistance to over 1,500 people in Quetta, Turbat and Lasbela, the statement said.
The monsoon, which usually lasts from June to September, is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but also brings a wave of destruction each year.
Pakistan ranks eighth on a list of countries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to the environment NGO Germwatch.
The metrological office has forecast more rains in the coming days. “More rains are forecast in Karachi until [Tuesday],” warned Sardar Sarfraz, director of the Met Office.
The heavy downpour also disrupted flights and train operations in the megacity of 15 million.
The worst floods of recent times were in 2010 — covering almost a fifth of Pakistan’s landmass — killing nearly 2,000 people and displacing 20 million.
— With input from AFP
