Islamabad (EFE).- Thousands of people have still not returned to their homes destroyed by the recent unprecedented floods in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province as the water continues to recede in the southern Sindh region, officials said Tuesday.
Following prolonged monsoon rains, large parts of the Punjab province, home to half of the country’s 240 million people, have been inundated after India released water from upstream dams, leading to rivers bursting their banks.
Pakistan’s eastern neighbor has built dams on Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej Rivers which flow into downstream Pakistan.
According to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the floods are not receding in southern Sindh province too after wreaking havoc in the eastern Punjab province for a month now.
The monsoon rains have stopped in the country but rainfall in the river catchment areas for the next 24 hours was expected, according to the Flood Forecasting Division in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab.
All the rivers in the province are flowing at normal levels except for Sutlej which is still in medium floods.
Months after the floods ended in Punjab, many people still live in temporary camps where sanitation and food supplies are insufficient. These conditions pose serious health risks and highlight ongoing challenges in providing adequate humanitarian aid and basic services.
“Thousands are still living in makeshift camps as either their houses have collapsed and they are still waiting for the water to completely dry up to go home,” Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for the Provincial Disasters Management Authority in Punjab told EFE on Tuesday.
Since the rivers started overflowing in Punjab on Aug. 23, a total of 131 people have been killed while nearly 5 million have been affected by the deluge.
Punjab’s Relief Commissioner Nabil Javed said in a statement on Tuesday that “131 civilians were killed and 13 injured in various incidents due to recent floods.”
He added that a total of 4.76 million people were affected due to the flood situation in the rivers.
NDMA, in its report released Friday, said that 3,020,130 people were rescued in 5,768 operations across the country since June 26.
It added that 152,252 people were still in relief camps while 662,098 were treated at the camps during the time.
As per NDMA, 1,006 people have been killed and 1,063 others have been injured in rain and flood-related incidents since the period in the country.
The disaster management body added that 12,569 houses were damaged, 8,441 of them partially and 4,128 fully destroyed while 6,509 livestock perished.
A total of 1,981 km (1,231 miles) of roads and 239 bridges were also damaged across the country.
Punjab’s Information Minister Azma Bokhari said during a press conference on Tuesday that the provincial government will give compensation Rs 1 million ($3,525) to those whose brick-made houses had been demolished, and Rs 500,000 to those whose houses built with mud bricks had fallen.
Bokhari said that 4,494 villages have been affected by the deluge in the province, adding that 2,213 survey teams were working in the field to assess damage in the region.
The monsoon rains are an important source of water for crop irrigation, groundwater replenishment, and working fluids for Pakistan’s hydroelectric power plants. Usually, the country receives approximately 70 percent of its annual rainfall during July and September. EFE
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