ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistani engineers on Sunday cut into a dam for one of the country’s largest lakes to release rising waters in hopes of saving a nearby town and community from flooding as officials predicted more monsoon rains were already picking up the way to the land is the devastated south.
While officials hope cutting the sides of Lake Manchar will protect about half a million people living in the town of Sehwan and the town of Bhan Saeedabad, villages of 150,000 people are in the way of the diverted water. The hometown of the chief minister of Sindh province was among the affected villages whose residents were warned to evacuate early, according to the province’s information minister.
More than 1,300 people died and millions lost their homes in floods caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan this year, which many experts attribute to climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. He plans to visit the flood-affected areas on September 9.
Several countries have flown in aid, but the Pakistani government has asked for even more help amid the daunting task of feeding and sheltering those affected and protecting them from waterborne diseases.
While flooding has ravaged much of the country, Sindh province has been hardest hit.
With meteorologists predicting more rain in the coming days, including around Lake Manchar in Sindh, and its levels are already rising, authorities have ordered water to be drained from it. Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah made the call even though his own village could be flooded, said Sharjil Inam Memon, the province’s information minister. The government helped residents of waterway villages to evacuate early, Memon said.
The hope was that once released, the water would flow into the nearby Indus River, but the lake’s level continued to rise even after the cut, according to Fariduddin Mustafa, administrator of Jamshoro district, where the affected villages are located. Authorities have also warned residents of neighboring Dadu district that they could face more flooding in the coming days.
While the bleed valve was being created in one area, Army engineers elsewhere worked to strengthen the shores of Lake Manchar, which is the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan and one of the largest in Asia.
In its latest report, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority put the death toll at 1,314 since mid-June – when the monsoon rains hit weeks earlier than usual – as more deaths were reported from the flood-hit areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces . According to the report, 458 children were among the dead.
Rescue operations continued on Sunday with troops and volunteers using helicopters and boats to move stranded people from flooded areas to relief camps, the agency said. Tens of thousands of people are already living in such camps, and thousands more have taken refuge on roadsides in higher areas.
Hira Ikram, a doctor at a camp set up by the British organization Islamic Mission in Sukkur, said many people had scabies, gastrointestinal infections and fevers.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who visits flood-hit areas and aid camps daily, called for more international aid on Sunday.
“With over 400 (child) deaths, they make up a third of the total number of fatalities. Now they are at even greater risk of waterborne diseases, UNICEF and other global organizations should help,” he tweeted.
In fact, UNICEF shipped tons of medicines, medical supplies, water purification tablets and dietary supplements to Pakistan on Sunday.
The Alkidmat Foundation, a charity, said its volunteers used boats to deliver ready meals and other aid to residents, as well as animal feed, on a small island in the Indus. The group also distributed food and items needed by the roadside people.
In the northwest of the country, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial disaster management agency warned of further rain, possible flash floods and landslides in the coming week in Malakand and Hazara districts. Taimur Khan, spokesman for the agency, urged residents on Sunday not to visit any of the areas that have already been flooded in recent weeks.
According to initial government estimates, the devastation caused $10 billion in damage, but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Saturday: “The scale of the devastation is massive and requires immense humanitarian assistance to 33 million people.”
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Associated Press journalist Mohammad Farooq in Sukkur, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.