PAKISTAN`S FLOODING PUSHES SOUTH
Baku, August 6 (AZERTAC). The worst monsoon rains in 80 years are continuing to sweep from the north-west to south and central Pakistan.
Rivers in Sindh province, home to Karachi, Pakistan`s biggest city and business hub, are bursting their banks. Pakistani authorities have evacuated 500,000 people in 11 districts of Sindh and issued warnings to people in low-lying areas of the Indus river. Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing about 1,600 people and affecting another 4.5m.
There is mounting anger at the absence of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is on a state visit to Britain to meet the UK Prime Minister David Cameron. With flood victims bitterly accusing the authorities of failing to come to their aid, the disaster has piled yet more pressure on an administration struggling to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis. And the region is only midway through monsoon season, with more rain forecast.
Electricity grid stations in the Punjab-Sindh region have been shut down to minimise chances of electrocution. Officials say they are trying to move about one million people from the riverine region of Sindh. Waters in the Punjab region are now receding but several new villages in the Jaffarabad area have been deluged since Thursday evening.
Officials say the most immediate needs of the displaced are tents, plastic sheets, food and medicines. Meanwhile, the World Bank said it had set up an aid fund at Pakistan`s request with initial pledges of $80m. Meanwhile, nearly 60 people have died in flash floods in the Ladakh region of Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say, nearly 200 people were injured.
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