New Storm Warnings in Pakistan Hinder Rescue
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Residents scrambled to pick up bottles of water dropped in Nowshera on Monday by a Pakistani Air Force helicopter. More Photos »
By SALMAN MASOOD
Published: August 3, 2010Mixx
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The Lede Blog: Pakistan Islamists Vie to Help in Floods (August 2, 2010)
Mohammad Sajjad/Associated Press
Residents of Nowshera whose homes were destroyed. A provincial official said 1.4 million people had lost their homes. More Photos »
The floods, coming at the start of the monsoon season but already the worst here in 80 years, have thrown into stark relief the limitations of a government burdened with a surfeit of security and economic crises.
Estimates of the dead and displaced have been steadily growing since the flooding began last week. Unicef said the floodwaters had claimed 1,400 lives and left a million children in need of emergency assistance. Survivors have complained bitterly about the slow pace of relief efforts, and there have been protests in two districts, Nowshera and Charsadda, in the volatile province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, formerly the North-West Frontier Province.
The warning about the dam, Warsak, spread panic in the nearby city of Peshawar and its environs.
“If needed, forced evacuation will be started,” Adnan Khan, a spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority, told The Associated Press. Local news outlets reported that people had fled from three nearby villages.
Days into the disaster, the government is still trying to chart a strategy to provide relief to those affected and summon up international aid and assistance. A special session of the federal cabinet will convene Wednesday to discuss the flood situation, said Babar Awan, the country’s law minister.
On Monday, Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani asked the government to approach the United Nations for help in preparing a call to the international community for emergency aid. The United States already has pledged $10 million in relief; the United Nations has offered $10 million; and China has pledged $1.5 million, according to the Xinhua state news agency.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari began an overseas trip on Monday that started in France and continued Tuesday in Britain.
Local news outlets reported that 150,000 people in Kot Addu, a southern Punjab town, risked displacement as floodwaters threatened to overrun that city and adjoining villages. Officials there asked people on Tuesday to close down the main markets and move to safer locations. Local news networks broadcast images of women and children huddled on trucks and buses as they moved out of the town.
Hundreds of villages in neighboring Dera Ghazi Khan were submerged on Monday night, due to flash floods.
In a statement, the United Nations refugee agency said some of the people displaced by the floods had already been fleeing earlier emergencies. The agency, based in Geneva, said it was procuring 20,000 extra tents and was “working to reach at least 250,000 of the most vulnerable to provide shelter and other items including blankets, jerry cans, buckets, plastic sheets and kitchen sets.”
“The majority of the flood-hit displaced are crammed into public buildings, including schools and colleges,” the agency said in a statement. “Among them are thousands of Afghan refugees and displaced Pakistanis who have suddenly lost their homes for the second time.”
Estimates of the dead and displaced have been steadily growing since the flooding began last week. Unicef said the floodwaters had claimed 1,400 lives and left a million children in need of emergency assistance. Survivors have complained bitterly about the slow pace of relief efforts, and there have been protests in two districts, Nowshera and Charsadda, in the volatile province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, formerly the North-West Frontier Province.
The warning about the dam, Warsak, spread panic in the nearby city of Peshawar and its environs.
“If needed, forced evacuation will be started,” Adnan Khan, a spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority, told The Associated Press. Local news outlets reported that people had fled from three nearby villages.
Days into the disaster, the government is still trying to chart a strategy to provide relief to those affected and summon up international aid and assistance. A special session of the federal cabinet will convene Wednesday to discuss the flood situation, said Babar Awan, the country’s law minister.
On Monday, Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani asked the government to approach the United Nations for help in preparing a call to the international community for emergency aid. The United States already has pledged $10 million in relief; the United Nations has offered $10 million; and China has pledged $1.5 million, according to the Xinhua state news agency.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari began an overseas trip on Monday that started in France and continued Tuesday in Britain.
Local news outlets reported that 150,000 people in Kot Addu, a southern Punjab town, risked displacement as floodwaters threatened to overrun that city and adjoining villages. Officials there asked people on Tuesday to close down the main markets and move to safer locations. Local news networks broadcast images of women and children huddled on trucks and buses as they moved out of the town.
Hundreds of villages in neighboring Dera Ghazi Khan were submerged on Monday night, due to flash floods.
In a statement, the United Nations refugee agency said some of the people displaced by the floods had already been fleeing earlier emergencies. The agency, based in Geneva, said it was procuring 20,000 extra tents and was “working to reach at least 250,000 of the most vulnerable to provide shelter and other items including blankets, jerry cans, buckets, plastic sheets and kitchen sets.”
“The majority of the flood-hit displaced are crammed into public buildings, including schools and colleges,” the agency said in a statement. “Among them are thousands of Afghan refugees and displaced Pakistanis who have suddenly lost their homes for the second time.”
