Floodwater 1km away from Shahbaz Airbase
Jacobabad Evacuated
* Water from breached Tori Band likely to reach city within 24 hours
* Aid agencies warn fever, diarrhoea spreading among survivors
* 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far
SUKKUR: As raging river waters caused more devastation in the country on Friday, over 80 percent of the 300,000 people of Jacobabad city were evacuated ahead of expected flooding over the next 24 hours. The water was only one kilometre away from the nearby Shahbaz Airbase.
Floodwater is rushing towards the city after Tori Band (embankment) was breached. According to Jacobabad District Coordination Officer (DCO) Kazim Jatoi, the floodwater had entered Noorwah Canal, which would not be able to withstand the pressure for more than three hours.
“Water, if it enters the city, will first of all affect the nearby Shahbaz Air Base,” Jatoi warned.
Dozens of villages were inundated near Sultan Kot in Shikarpur district due to breaches in the Begari and Sindh canals.
Hundreds of villagers are waiting to be rescued in the area. Pakistan Army personnel were able to reach only one of the affected villages, Deen Muhammad Jafferi. They evacuated the people through a boat. Authorities in Sindh said that 45 people drowned in the Indus River on Friday.
Diarrhoea: In the rest of the flood-affected areas, fever and diarrhoea are spreading among the survivors.
“The crisis facing Pakistan is not only enormous, it’s still unfolding,” UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
“There continues to be massive destruction as the bloated rivers flow southwards across the plains and the crisis in our view will not be over when the flooding recedes,” he said.
The UN said limited access to safe water and crowded and unsanitary conditions in makeshift camps meant an increased risk of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue fever. In Multan, large parts of which have been under water for days, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days. “The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors,” said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
Overall, there have been 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.
“This is a growing concern. Therefore we are responding with all kinds of preventative as well as curative medication... for outbreaks,” said Maurizio Giuliano, the UN humanitarian operation spokesman.
The UN warned that dams in Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks. In Gilgit-Baltistan, death toll from rains and landslides rose to 116. Diamer and Skardu were the worst-affected districts. agencies
---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------
pakistan total exports are not even 40 billion.
i think the poster means GDP.