FLOOD-RAVAGED Pakistan braced itself for further rains yesterday as the United Nations appealed for more helicopters to help reach 800,000 people who remain stranded by the deluge.
Thunder showers and occasional heavy rain are expected until Friday in two of the worst-hit provinces, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, according to the Pakistan meteorological department.
At least 800,000 people cut off by the flooding are at risk of dying of starvation or disease unless more helicopters are provided to assist in aid drops, the UN warned.
“We have got 13 helicopters right now. We would like another 37 because more are needed,” said UN humanitarian spokesman Maurizio Giuliano. “We are using aid drops. It’s not the best way of doing it, but it is the only way.”
While floodwaters have receded in some parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, there are fears of further flooding in the southern province of Sindh, as the swollen Indus river makes its way to the Arabian Sea.
The Pakistani government has described low-lying Sindh as the region worst affected by the deluge, which was prompted by heavy monsoon rains in late July. Much of the province remains under water. Officials say up to 600,000 people there are in danger from rising floodwaters.
The disaster has affected up to 20 million people across Pakistan, from its mountainous northwest to the southern plains of Sindh. Eight million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. An estimated six million need emergency shelter.
Appealing for more helicopters, the UN noted that the destruction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure in the northwest – particularly the Swat valley in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – the Gilgit-Baltistan region and the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, severely hampered efforts to reach those most in need.
“These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges, and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international community,” John Holmes, the UN’s emergency relief co-ordinator, said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, said the country could take years to recover from the disaster. Agriculture, the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, has been devastated. At least 14 per cent of cultivated land has been damaged or lost, and some 200,000 livestock have perished.
The International Monetary Fund, which has predicted the catastrophe would have a “major and lasting” impact on what was already a limping economy, has begun crisis talks with officials.
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