Landslides snarl relief efforts
Source: Agencies |
August 10, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LANDSLIDES triggered by the worst floods in Pakistan in 80 years are hampering already troubled relief efforts, with aid workers using mules or travelling on foot to reach people in desperate need of help.
Poor weather has made it difficult for helicopters to deliver food to some parts of the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad, and among the areas first hit by the deluge.
Many roads have been destroyed and landslides have added to the isolation of many areas.
The catastrophe has killed more than 1,600 people and left two million homeless.
"We have brought in 130 mules to take food supplies to the cut-off valleys," an army spokesman in Swat, Major Mushtaq Khan, said yesterday, adding that bad weather had grounded helicopters for the past two days.
"About one million people are stranded because the main road link has been severed. We believe that most stocks villagers had have been exhausted and they need supplies"
Villagers were helping soldiers clear the road, he said.
Ten days of floods have ploughed a swathe of destruction more than 1,000 kilometers long down the Indus River basin, from the north to the southern province of Sindh.
In Punjab, army helicopters rescued people and their livestock from rooftops in Mehmood Kot Village, a scene being played out in many parts of the country.
Reluctant to leave
One family survived by placing planks on a huge date tree almost 27.5 metres above ground and staying there.
Some soldiers are getting frustrated by people's reluctance to leave their homes.
"When we try to take them, they say they don't want to leave and instead they demand food. We have to fly again to bring food. This is a major problem for us," Lieutenant Colonel Salman Rafiq said.
One woman gave birth to twin boys in her flooded house in the town of Sanawa. Neighbours carried the woman and her babies on a rope bed through the flood to a helicopter.
Pakistan's troubled economy will need huge injections of foreign aid. Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian relief will be needed over the next few months alone.
Pakistan turned to the International Monetary Fund in 2008 to avert a balance of payments crisis and has been struggling to meet the conditions of that US$10.66 billion emergency loan.
The flooding, brought on by unusually heavy monsoon rain over the upper reaches of the Indus basin, including eastern Afghanistan and northern India, has destroyed 360,000 houses, aid groups say.
Poor weather has made it difficult for helicopters to deliver food to some parts of the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad, and among the areas first hit by the deluge.
Many roads have been destroyed and landslides have added to the isolation of many areas.
The catastrophe has killed more than 1,600 people and left two million homeless.
"We have brought in 130 mules to take food supplies to the cut-off valleys," an army spokesman in Swat, Major Mushtaq Khan, said yesterday, adding that bad weather had grounded helicopters for the past two days.
"About one million people are stranded because the main road link has been severed. We believe that most stocks villagers had have been exhausted and they need supplies"
Villagers were helping soldiers clear the road, he said.
Ten days of floods have ploughed a swathe of destruction more than 1,000 kilometers long down the Indus River basin, from the north to the southern province of Sindh.
In Punjab, army helicopters rescued people and their livestock from rooftops in Mehmood Kot Village, a scene being played out in many parts of the country.
Reluctant to leave
One family survived by placing planks on a huge date tree almost 27.5 metres above ground and staying there.
Some soldiers are getting frustrated by people's reluctance to leave their homes.
"When we try to take them, they say they don't want to leave and instead they demand food. We have to fly again to bring food. This is a major problem for us," Lieutenant Colonel Salman Rafiq said.
One woman gave birth to twin boys in her flooded house in the town of Sanawa. Neighbours carried the woman and her babies on a rope bed through the flood to a helicopter.
Pakistan's troubled economy will need huge injections of foreign aid. Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian relief will be needed over the next few months alone.
Pakistan turned to the International Monetary Fund in 2008 to avert a balance of payments crisis and has been struggling to meet the conditions of that US$10.66 billion emergency loan.
The flooding, brought on by unusually heavy monsoon rain over the upper reaches of the Indus basin, including eastern Afghanistan and northern India, has destroyed 360,000 houses, aid groups say.
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