FAZILPUR, Pakistan — Engineers breached
Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake to drain water threatening nearby towns,
officials said Monday, as heavy rain poured misery on millions affected by the
country’s worst floods in history.
اضافة اعلان
Nearly a third of Pakistan is under water — an area
the size of the United Kingdom — following months of record monsoon rains that
have killed 1,300 people and washed away homes, businesses, roads, and bridges.
Officials say the repair bill will top $10 billion
for a country already in the grip of economic crisis, with hundreds of
thousands homeless as the monsoon draws to an end and winter approaches.
“There is nowhere to shower or go to the bathroom,”
said Zebunnisa Bibi, sheltering near Fazilpur, in Punjab province, where 65
tents are now home to more than 500 people who fled their inundated villages
for higher land.
Similar tent camps have mushroomed across much of
the south and west of Pakistan, where rain has nowhere to drain because rivers
are already in full flow as a result of torrential downpours in the north.
Sindh province Information minister Sharjeel Inam
Memon told AFP Monday that engineers had to cut a channel into Lake Manchar to
drain water that was threatening the towns of Sehwan and Bhan Saeedabad, with a
combined population of nearly half a million.
Lake Manchar bigger than ever
Still, thousands had to be
evacuated from smaller settlements submerged by the newly directed channel.
“The flood water was diverted but the threat is
still far from over,” Memon said.
“We are trying our best to stop the inundation of
more villages.”
Lake Manchar, which lies west of the Indus River,
varies in size according to the season and rainfall, but is currently spread
over as wide an area as anyone can recall.
Much of Sindh and parts of Balochistan have become a
vast landscape of water, with displaced locals huddled miserably on elevated
roads, rail tracks and other high ground.
Human and animal waste in the fetid water attracts
swarms of flies, while outbreaks of dengue are being reported from mosquitos
breeding in the swamplands.
One pregnant woman at a camp in Punjab said she was
desperate for medical attention for a baby due any day now.
The mother-of-five knows it could be a difficult
birth, as the baby has not shifted from the breech position.
“I need a doctor or a midwife. What if something
happens to my child?” said Fahmidah Bibi.
The UN Population Fund said at the weekend there
were at least 128,000 pregnant women in flood-hit areas who urgently need care
— with 42,000 expected to give birth in the next three months.
Climate change blamed
Pakistan receives heavy —
often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial
for agriculture and water supplies.
But such intense downpours have not been seen for
decades.
Pakistani officials blame
climate change, which is
increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.
Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of
global greenhouse gas emissions but is eighth on a list compiled by the NGO
Germanwatch of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by
climate change.
A massive army-led relief operation is in full
swing, but the country’s leaders have admitted being overwhelmed by the scale
of the crisis and appealed for international help.
The latest figures from the
National Disaster Management Authority show nearly 6,000km of roads have been washed away, 246
bridges demolished, and 1.6 million homes either destroyed or badly damaged
since June, when the monsoon started.
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