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Floods affect over 4 million in Pakistan's northwest: minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Aug 7, IRNA -- The monsoon rains coupled with flash floods have affected nearly 4.2 million people and 847 people confirmed dead in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, provincial information minister said Friday.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that floods also rendered 720,608 homeless.

Floods water have started receding in rivers flowing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, giving a sigh relief to the staff engaged in relief activities to reach out to the affectees who are facing starvation.

The Met pundits forecast more rains in the province and other parts of Pakistan during next 24 hours.

Foreign aid started pouring in and a Saudi Government plane with quilts, blankets landed at Peshawar Airport. Saudi authorities' pledges more aid in the days to come.

Hussain told reporters that the floods affected 590,712 families in 468 villages. In all 100,110 houses totally been destroyed while 56,695 partially damaged. Similarly 233 roads and 208 bridges damaged. About 15,349 families comprising over 100,000 individuals are residing the 385 relief camps setup in the government buildings.

An army statement said 18 helicopters are busy in distributing rations and evacuating marooned people from Kalam, a scenic spot in Swat valley.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is initially aiming to support more than 350,000 of the most vulnerable among the flood-affected population in Pakistan where the worst floods in more than 80 years have devastated hundreds of communities.

Rain continues to fall across the region with the threat of monsoon flooding further south in Punjab Province and heavily-populated Sindh Province rising. With many hundreds of thousands of people displaced and without adequate shelter, food and water, government departments and aid agencies are in a race against time to reach affected communities while many roads and key bridges remain cut off.

Across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, some 10,000 UNHCR tents have so far been distributed along with other relief supplies such as plastic tarpaulins, blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets as part of a coordinated response involving the UN and the government.

UNHCR will receive several thousand additional tents and Ramadan food parcels donated by the government of Saudi Arabia on Saturday at its Peshawar warehouse in flood-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Saudi Arabia has agreed to contribute more than 25,000 tents and other urgently needed relief items to the agency's monsoon relief effort.

Monsoon affected people have told UNHCR teams how they fled their homes as they were hit by walls of water. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed or badly damaged. Families have lost all their food stocks, livestock and personal possessions. One woman told UNHCR how her family had lost 50 cows.