Warning of more floods in Pakistan
Source: Agencies |
August 19, 2010, Thursday
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THE floodwaters that have ravaged Pakistan will not recede fully until the end of the month, the country's top meteorologist said yesterday, a grim forecast for the more than 20 million people made homeless or otherwise affected by the deluge.
The scale of the disaster has badly strained the government and the police and army, which are handling much of the relief effort. Islamist militants clashed with police overnight in the northwest, and police said the insurgents were seeking to exploit the state's weaknesses as it dealt with the floods.
Pakistan senior meteorologist Arif Mahmood said existing river torrents were still heading to major cities such as Hyderabad and Sukkur in the south and could yet cause more floods. But he said there were no heavy rains forecast this week.
"This is a good news for aid agencies involved in the rescue and relief operations," he said.
The floods that began three weeks ago have submerged tens of thousands of villages, killed around 1,500 people and affected 20 million others, authorities say. The floods hit first in the northwest, wiping out much of its infrastructure, and then the bloated rivers gushed toward the south and the east, displacing millions more people.
About a fifth of Pakistani territory has been affected.
The United Nations appealed last week for US$459 million in international aid for immediate relief to Pakistan. Aid groups have complained that the response so far has been anemic, but UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano announced yesterday that more than half of the money - 54.5 percent - had come in.
"This is very encouraging," he said.
Still, he said major challenges remained, especially preventing what he feared may be "a second wave" of death from disease and hunger. He also said rescue workers were trying to procure more plastic sheeting and tents for an estimated 4.6 million people in Punjab and Sindh who have no shelter.
The northwest is the epicenter of Pakistan's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, and attacks by militants highlighted the threat they still pose.
A group of militants first killed two members of an anti-Taliban militia in the Adezai area of Peshawar as they headed to a mosque late on Tuesday, said Liaqat Ali Khan, Peshawar police chief.
In the hours after, dozens of militants from the Khyber tribal region, which lies near Peshawar and along the Afghan border, attacked police posts in the Peshawar's Sarband area. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the militants retreated to Khyber, Khan said. Several militants were killed, but there were no police casualties.
The Pakistani Taliban have urged citizens to reject any foreign aid, saying it will only be stolen by the political elite in the impoverished nation of 175 million.
The scale of the disaster has badly strained the government and the police and army, which are handling much of the relief effort. Islamist militants clashed with police overnight in the northwest, and police said the insurgents were seeking to exploit the state's weaknesses as it dealt with the floods.
Pakistan senior meteorologist Arif Mahmood said existing river torrents were still heading to major cities such as Hyderabad and Sukkur in the south and could yet cause more floods. But he said there were no heavy rains forecast this week.
"This is a good news for aid agencies involved in the rescue and relief operations," he said.
The floods that began three weeks ago have submerged tens of thousands of villages, killed around 1,500 people and affected 20 million others, authorities say. The floods hit first in the northwest, wiping out much of its infrastructure, and then the bloated rivers gushed toward the south and the east, displacing millions more people.
About a fifth of Pakistani territory has been affected.
The United Nations appealed last week for US$459 million in international aid for immediate relief to Pakistan. Aid groups have complained that the response so far has been anemic, but UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano announced yesterday that more than half of the money - 54.5 percent - had come in.
"This is very encouraging," he said.
Still, he said major challenges remained, especially preventing what he feared may be "a second wave" of death from disease and hunger. He also said rescue workers were trying to procure more plastic sheeting and tents for an estimated 4.6 million people in Punjab and Sindh who have no shelter.
The northwest is the epicenter of Pakistan's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, and attacks by militants highlighted the threat they still pose.
A group of militants first killed two members of an anti-Taliban militia in the Adezai area of Peshawar as they headed to a mosque late on Tuesday, said Liaqat Ali Khan, Peshawar police chief.
In the hours after, dozens of militants from the Khyber tribal region, which lies near Peshawar and along the Afghan border, attacked police posts in the Peshawar's Sarband area. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the militants retreated to Khyber, Khan said. Several militants were killed, but there were no police casualties.
The Pakistani Taliban have urged citizens to reject any foreign aid, saying it will only be stolen by the political elite in the impoverished nation of 175 million.
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