Nearly 5 million people have been displaced in Pakistan's worst flooding ever
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SUKKUR, Pakistan -- Floodwaters continued to surge Sunday into areas of southern Pakistan, forcing thousands more people to abandon their homes and flee to higher ground.
Attention has now focused on the province of Sindh as the floods that have torn through the length of the country for three weeks move finally toward the Arabian Sea.
Water reached within half a mile of Shadad Kot, a town of 150,000 people, on Sunday afternoon, and several nearby villages were already cut off when a protective embankment began to give way, Yasin Shar, the district coordination officer of Shadad Kot, said by telephone. Most of the population has been evacuated, and more were still leaving, he said.
"We are trying to save the embankment and keep on repairing wherever it is damaged, but the water is flowing with a lot of pressure," Mr. Shar said. "We hope the embankment won't break. We are praying."
Nearly 5 million people have been displaced from the worst flooding ever recorded in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands are being housed in orderly tented camps set up in army compounds, schools and other public buildings, but thousands more are living on roadsides and canal embankments, spreading out mats under the trees or making shade over the simple rope beds they brought with them.
Also Sunday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking in Islamabad, said the world has given or pledged more than $800 million to help Pakistan cope with the disaster. The United States has promised $150 million.
Pakistan can ill afford the crisis. The South Asian country's economy was already being kept afloat by billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund, and the cost of rebuilding after the floods will likely run into the billions.
The IMF said it will meet with Pakistani officials this week to discuss the floods and what the country must do to cope.
The town of Sukkur is overflowing with the influx of displaced people. On the edge of the town, a group of 15 families with scores of children is camped along the Dadu Canal. The people's mood is nervous, edgy, and they race in a horde after any vehicle that slows down in the hopes it bears food or assistance. One woman showed her fractured arm, the result of a tussle for food.
First Published August 23, 2010 12:02 am
