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Flash floods kill 550 in Pakistan in heaviest rains in decades
A Pakistani government agency said that flash floods caused by abnormally heavy monsoon rains killed at least 549 people in the country over the past month, with remote communities in the impoverished southwestern province of Balochistan among the hardest hit.
Government agencies and the army have set up aid and relief camps in flood-hit regions and were working to help relocate families and provide food and medicine, the Alarabiya English reported, citing Reuters.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Friday (August 5), aside from the fatalities, the flooding had damaged more than 46,200 houses.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said during visit to stricken areas: “We’re doing our best to provide for extensive relief and rehabilitation of flood victims.”
But the Balochistan provincial government said it needed more funds and appealed to international organizations for assistance.
“Our losses are massive,” the province’s Chief Minister Abdul Qudoos Bezenjo said. There were food shortages in every district hit by the flooding, with some also disconnected from the rest of the province due to more than 700 kilometers of roads being washed away.
Climate change and population growth could lead to rise in floods and pollution
Bezenjo said his province needed “huge assistance” from the government and from international aid agencies.
The NDMA said, the past month was the wettest in three decades, with 133 percent more rain than the average for the past 30 years.
The disaster agency said, Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, received 305 percent more rain than the annual average.
Source: alarabiyaenglish
