Flood News in Pakistan

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Anger over Pakistan flood responseSurvivors say government failed to come to their rescue following floods that have affected 2.5million.

Survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan have accused the government of failing to provide adequateshelter, food and medicine in the aftermath of the disaster, which has killed at least 1,500 people.

About 2.5 million people across the country have been affected by the floods, according to the RedCross.

Hundreds of them gathered in the city of Peshawar on Monday to protest against the government's slowresponse.

"I had built a two-room house on the outskirts of Peshawar with my hard-earned money but I lost it in thefloods," Ejaz Khan, one of the demonstrators, said.

"The government is not helping us... the school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no

adequate arrangement for food and medicine," the 53-year-old said.

Criticism 'justified'

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, told Al Jazeera that survivorshad "every right" to criticise the government.

"I think their criticism will persuade the government to do even more than it is doing," he said.

"We really sympathise with those who are marooned and those who have lost lives and relatives. Theyare justified in criticising because after all, they are the people who are suffering."

Babar said that the cost of the clean-up may run into billions of dollars. President Zardari has set up aspecial unit to co-ordinate the response to the disaster and is watching the situation closely as hecontinues a trip to France.

The government has issued a flood warning for the southern province of Sindh, where heavy rain wasexpected on Monday night.

International donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid to help the survivors.

The crisis developed after "unprecedented" monsoon rains caused rivers to burst their banks, washingaway entire villages, bridges and triggering deadly landslides.

Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman, reporting from Mingora in the Swat Valley, one of the worst affected areas,

said "it's breathtaking to see the damage that has been caused."

"There are no formal relief camps in the region of Swat," he said.

"They can't situate them anywhere because if these rains come again, these camps could just as well beswept away. There are some feeding stations though."

He said about 100,000 people were getting food from such stations at the outskirts of Peshawar.



F armland destroyed

Thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan's poorest regions.

Several camps, offering food and medicine, have been set up in community centres by provincial and

relief organisations in different parts of the country.

Concerns have been raised over the threat of disease as survivors arrived in camps with fever, diarrhoeaand skin problems.

"Our doctors have treated over 600 people just in the last two days and they are seeing a lot of cases of diarrhoea, fever and skin infections," Sonia Cush, the director of emergency response at Save theChildren in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.

"We currently have emergency health teams moving around within the affected area treating people whourgently need healthcare, and our priorities are food, clean drinking water, healthcare and hygienematerials to ward off diseases.

"We will be distributing plastic sheeting to build makeshift shelters, but the hard work will only begin oncethe flood waters start to recede."

Officials from Unicef, the United Nations' children fund, said contaminated flood waters and lack of cleanwater could increase the risk of the spread of diarrhoeal diseases.

Children under five are especially vulnerable to dehydration from diarrhoea. With more than 40 per centof the population under 18 years of age, the number of children affected could be in the hundreds of thousands, they said.

The UN has pledged $10m to help in the crisis, as has the US, which has also rushed rescue helicoptersand boats to Pakistan to reach survivors who have been cut off by the floods.

AmeriCares Responds to Pakistan F looding...

AmeriCares Airlifts More Relief Supplies to Help Pakistan F lood Survivors 08/19/10

Pakistan's worst flooding in 80 years has claimed at least 1,600 lives, left more than 4 million people homeless andaffected over 20 million people. The latest AmeriCares airlift contains more than $500,000 worth of critical medicalaid to help survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan. The shipment includes medicines and medical supplies to helppeople suffering from serious infections, pain, fever and injuries.

"The Pakistan flooding disaster is going from bad to worse, especially for millions of children and vulnerable elderlypeople at risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne illnesses," reports Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares senior vicepresident of global programs. "With the threat of disease outbreak increasing, we are ramping up our planneddeliveries of crucial medicines and medical supplies to meet a crisis that is now reaching epic proportions."

AmeriCares has mounted disaster relief efforts to help sick and injured people affected by the floods. Hospitals andclinics report rapidly depleting existing stocks of medication, wound care supplies and hygiene items. In response,

AmeriCares continues to deliver medical aid to local partners and the airlifted aid is en route to health care providershelping flood survivors.

Continued rains hamper access to Pakistan's northwest region, leaving entire villages cut off many from relief effortsand raising the level of urgency to reach many in desperate need of basic supplies. And with more rain on the way,



officials fear that the flooding will extend still further into the more populated provinces of Sindh and Punjab over thecoming days.

Since 1990, AmeriCares has delivered nearly $57 million in assistance to Pakistan including relief supplies rangingfrom medicines, medical supplies, equipment, health care facilities and nutritional support.

Pakistan Flood Toll Exceeds 1,500 as Officials Struggle to Reach SurvivorsBy Anwar Shakir and Farhan Sharif - Aug 2, 2010

Pakistan¶s deadliest floods in decades killed more than 1,500 people and overwhelmedgovernment efforts to provide aid, officials and relief workers said.

With President Asif Ali Zardari touring Europe, the government said it was rushing help to thedevastated northwestern province, where the army has fought Taliban guerrillas. Islamic militantgroups in the region and the U.S. government both have built public support in the past by

providing assistance to bolster government attempts.

Monsoon rains will continue for the next few days after ripping out bridges, roads and villagessince late last week, said Nasir Khan, a Meteorological Department official in the provincialcapital, Peshawar. Regions downstream in the Indus River valley, where most of Pakistan¶s 162million people live, braced for floods that may damage crops, according to the nation¶s biggestagriculture body.

More than 1,500 people have died in Pakistan¶s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,said Noor Muhammad, a press officer for the provincial development ministry.

Government and private relief agencies are managing to provide ³only 5 percent of what¶srequired,´ Mujahid Khan, provincial spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, which runs Pakistan¶s

largest ambulance and rescue services, said by phone from Peshawar.

Pakistani television channels showed flood survivors gathered at roadsides, seeking transport tonearby towns.

Army Rescue

Pakistani soldiers in the flood-scoured Swat Valley ³are rescuing people from the water byhelicopter,´ said Zahid Khan, 55, president of the hotel association in Mingora, the valley¶s maintown. ³But the government has sent no help for people who lost their homes and they arecamping wherever they can with no drinking water,´ he said by phone.

Islamic militant activists distributed aid packages in the northwestern town of Charsadda, outsidePeshawar, the Associated Press reported. An earthquake in 2005 that killed about 86,000 peopleexposed the government¶s inadequacy in providing relief as the U.S. and Islamic militants racedto fill the gap.

U.S. Air Force cargo planes landed in the city of Rawalpindi yesterday with food packages as part of $10 million in emergency help pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has



sought to boost her country¶s image among Pakistanis as an opinion survey released last week bythe Pew Research Center in Washington showed only 17 percent of the local population had a

positive view of the U.S.

U.S. Aid

The U.S. is rushing helicopters, boats, pre-fabricated bridges, mobile water treatment units andfood supplies to affected areas, Clinton said in a statement yesterday.

Food distribution has begun in the worst affected districts of Peshawar, Nowshera andCharsadda, the World Food Program said yesterday on its website. Floodwaters ³have alsocaused significant damage´ to the UN agency¶s warehouses in northwestern Pakistan, it said.

The flood¶s death toll may rise to 3,000, said Edhi Foundation¶s Khan. He spoke from Peshawar,the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, previously called the North-West Frontier Province.

Officials in Pakistan¶s other provinces -- Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan -- braced for thefloodwaters moving down the Indus River and its tributaries. The Sindh government orderedresidents evacuated from locales along the Indus.

Crop Damage

The floods, which according to U.K. charity Oxfam may be Pakistan¶s worst in 35 years, maycut the production of rice, sugarcane and corn by about 10 percent to 15 percent, said Nasir Cheema, president of Pakistan¶s Chamber of Agriculture.

Pakistani television networks showed survivors clinging to trees or debris in muddy, raging

mountain rivers. Armed forces chief Ashraf Pervez Kayani yesterday visited flooded areas of theSwat Valley and his helicopter evacuated 17 residents, the army said on its website.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, a two-time prime minister, criticized Zardari for pursuing a tripto France and the U.K. this week. His absence flies in the face of ³the worst flooding in thecountry¶s history,´ Sharif said on the GEO television news channel.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who toured the stricken province by air, ordered thegovernment to provide food to people at safe locations.

The floods followed the deaths of 152 people when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the

capital, Islamabad, on July 28.

'2.5m people affected' by Pakistanfloods officials say2 August 2010 Last updated



U p to 2.5 million people have been affected by devastating floods in north-westPakistan, the International Red Cross has said.

Continue reading the main storyRelated stories

y In pictures: Flood damagey S outh Asia's deadliest threat?

Rescuers are struggling to reach 27,000 people still cut off by the floods, which arethe worst in 80 years.

At least 1,100 people have died and thousands have lost everything.

"In the worst-affected areas, entire villages were washed away without warning bywalls of flood water," the Red Cross said in a statement.

There are fears diarrhoea and cholera will spread among the homeless. Food isscarce and water supplies have been contaminated by the floods.

From the air we've had a clear view of the destructive force of the monsoon rains.

Muddy brown waters have submerged fields, bridges and roads, destroying cropsand devastating communities.

In some areas we've seen people wading, chest-deep, through the floods. Inothers, only the tops of trees have been visible.

We went to the city of Nowshera, one of the worst affected areas, where we sawseveral lakes - including one which covered the polo ground. Mud and rubble linedthe streets.

We met people at a temporary camp who said they were being helped by the army,but they were worried about the future.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa (formerlyNorth West Frontier Province), one of the worst-hit regions, said rescue teams were

trying to reach 27,000 stranded people, including 1,500 tourists in the S wat Valley,the scene of a major military offensive against the Taliban last year.

"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in someareas of S wat," he added.

The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.



The army - which says it has rescued 28,000 people in recent days - predicts theinitial search and rescue operation will take up to 10 days, says the BBC's OrlaGuerin, who has been on board a military helicopter over the S wat Valley.

But the army says rebuilding the damaged areas could take six months or more.

A spokesman for the U K-based charity S ave the Children told the BBC that theinfrastructure damage in S wat may be worse than in the earthquake whichdevastated the region in 2005.

"We fear that in places that have not been accessed as yet there are people thatwere trapped, and there is a possibility of more deaths taking place," thespokesman said.

Fu ll pict u re

As well as the more 1,000 deaths in Pakistan, at least 60 people have died acrossthe border in Afghanistan, where floods have affected four provinces.

There have been complaints that emergencyshelters have been inadequate or even non-existent

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the biggest challenge for theemergency services is access, as so many areas had their transport andcommunication links destroyed and are now isolated.

Officials in Islamabad fear that once access to affected areas improves, the fullpicture will show that the situation is much worse than is so far known, ourcorrespondent adds.

Floodwaters receded in some areas as weather conditions improved on Monday, butmore rain is now forecast.

Part of the main north-south motorway into the region was re-opened on S unday,before reportedly closing again. The brief opening allowed some aid supplies intothe flooded area while also permitting people to flee.



There is a desperate need for temporary shelter, clean drinking water and toilets toavert a public health catastrophe´

End Quote Jane Cocking Oxfam

y In pictures: Flood rescue effortsy Pakistan floods: Your storiesy Your photos of the destruction

The rain may have stopped but huge swathes of north-west Pakistan remainsubmerged, with many of those affected still stranded and waiting for help.

There have been complaints from some survivors that the government responsehas been slow and inadequate.

S everal hundred people took part in a protest in the north-western city of Peshawar, where homeless survivors have crammed into temporary shelters.

"The government is not helping us," said 53-year-old labourer Ejaz Khan, whosehouse on the city's outskirts was swept away by the floods.

"The school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequatearrangement for food and medicine," he told AFP news agency.

S hariyar Khan Bangash, the regional programme manager for the aid organisationWorld Vision, based in Peshawar, said survivors of the worst-affected areas weredesperate for drinking water.

"All the wells which are providing water for them are full of mud," he told the BBC."Among the children the diarrhoea has started already, and cholera."



BBC Weather: Yet more rain is forecast

U N S ecretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened by the significantloss of lives, livelihoods and infrastructure in Pakistan", and offered an extra $10m(£6.5m) in aid for the relief effort.

The U K government's Department for International Development has said it isproviding £10m for the Pakistan relief effort.

International Development S ecretary Andrew Mitchell said: "I know many Britishpeople are deeply concerned by the terrible suffering caused by the ongoingmonsoon floods in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is leading the relief effortsand the U K is ready to help in any way we can."

Earlier, the US also promised the government $10m in aid.

The US embassy in Islamabad said Washington would also be providing 12temporary bridges to replace some of those destroyed by the floods.

Flood News in Pakistan

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