Water levels receded in Pakistan yesterday, but survivors of record floods endured grim conditions in makeshift tent cities as the UN appealed for US$460 million in urgent foreign aid.
Flood warnings remained in place for certain towns in Punjab and Sindh provinces, but forecasters predicted only scattered rain, and many survivors were instead broiling in unbearable heat.
“The water level is receding in Sindh and Swat rivers and the water tendency is falling at Tarbela dam in the northwest,” Pakistan’s chief meteorologist Arif Mehmood said.
PHOTO: AFP
Another Pakistani river, the Chenab, is also going down, he said.
The Pakistani government said 14 million people face direct or indirect harm from the floods. The UN believes 1,600 people have died in the floods, while Pakistan has confirmed 1,243 deaths.
The US announced the deployment of an amphibious assault ship, taking the number of US helicopters available for the relief effort to 19.
US President Barack Obama “wants to lean forward in offering help to the Pakistanis,” US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said.
The Islamabad government has admitted to being overwhelmed, and hardline Islamic charities have conducted a highly visible aid effort on the ground.
The relief focus was switching to an estimated 2 million people who require shelter after fleeing flood-hit areas, as tents spring up along main roads and on the edge of major towns and cities.
“We estimate that at least 2 million require shelter and we’ve provided a quarter of that already,” said Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“Today the deliveries of tents and other shelter materials has started in Punjab and we’re gearing up for Sindh,” he said.
In Sindh, the provincial government said water levels had receded at the two main dams, although flood waters remained high.
The exodus of people to large conurbations is turning into a “huge humanitarian crisis,” putting an extra burden on local economies and infrastructure, Sindh spokesman Jameel Soomro said.
“We have a plan to shift flood victims to tent cities ... More than 100,000 people have arrived in Sukkur from different flood-hit areas, which is more than 5 percent of the city’s population,” he said. “We are using all our resources to provide victims with food, medicine and shelter amid reports about outbreak of water-borne diseases, especially among children and women.”
In Punjab, one of the worst-affected areas was the town of Muzaffargarh, where administrator Farasat Iqbal said up to 400,000 people had been evacuated and rising waters posed a risk of flooding the town in the next 24 to 36 hours.
In the northwest, officials said there was no danger of flooding in the main city of Peshawar or the town of Nowshehra, Warsak dam or the northwestern district of Swat, where police said water levels were receding.
The UN in New York appealed for US$460 million in urgent aid, of which US$150 million has already been pledged. UN officials estimate that billions of dollars are required in the long term.
“We have a huge task in front of us to deliver all that is required as soon as possible,” UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said.
Doctor Shahid Iqbal at a technical college of the outskirts of Nowshehra, where more than 3,000 people were seeking shelter, said survivors were facing skin infections, diahrrea and scabies.
Children were suffering in particular as a result of wading through or drinking water contaminated by ruptured sewage systems, Iqbal said.
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