At least 8 more people lost their lives in heavy rains and floods, including six schoolchildren, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab on Wednesday as rains, flooding continue to devastate Pakistan, while two more dams in Balochistan’s Chaman were breached submerging hundreds of houses.
According to details, continuous rains in Chaman and Qila Abdullah and Dubandi areas of Balochistan have created massive flooding in the rivers.
Two dams Amrit and Brij were also broken in the Union Council Jalgah of Dobandi destroying a large number of houses as a result.
The number of dams that have broken due to rains has increased to 18 in Qila Abdullah district.
Meanwhile, at least six children were killed when they were swept away by floods, while nine other people were injured in rain related incidents in the Upper Dir and Swat districts, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed.
Similarly, Rescue 1122 Punjab confirmed two deaths from hill torrents; one in Dera Ghazi Khan and one in Rajanpur. The torrents have also taken their toll on the infrastructure of schools, healthcare facilities, roads, electricity lines and irrigation canals.
Thousands of flood-displaced people are stranded on the banks of the river and along the Indus Highway, without any shelter in the rain. Meanwhile, waist-deep water is still standing in and around the localities where they dwell.
The deaths in Punjab brought the death toll in the province to 38 during the last two weeks.
In Upper Dir, five schoolchildren drowned in a flooded stream at Kasai Shahikot in the jurisdiction of Barawal police station.
Rescuers said that the children were on their way back from school when they were washed away by rushing waters. The victims included the son and a daughter of one Syed Aman, a son and a daughter of Zakir and an unidentified child. Rescuers said that dead bodies of four of the children were found later when the water receded, while the search for the fifth child was still ongoing.
Moreover, a large swathe of DG Khan has been submerged by water, causing widespread power supply disruptions. The loss to power transmission infrastructure here is immense, and statistics show that 640 transformers, 1,575 single phase meters and 145 three phase meters were damaged in the area during the recent heavy rains.
Meanwhile, heavy rains and flooding situations in several localities have affected train operations across the country.
According to the Pakistan Railways officials, the rail tracks washed away at many localities on the Karachi, Quetta and Sukkur sections, which is delaying the movement of trains for up to 26 hours.
Train operation has been restricted as several railway tracks were submerged in rainwater. Several trains scheduled for Thursday have been suspended.
The Karakoram, Karachi Express running between Karachi and Lahore were suspended. Karachi-Rawalpindi Pakistan Tezgam Express will remain suspended while Karachi-Peshawar Awam Express was also suspended.
Similarly, Karachi-Quetta Bolan Express and Quetta-Peshawar Jafar Express were also suspended.
According to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), heavy monsoon rainfall and floods have affected some 2.3 million people in Pakistan since mid-June, killing more than 900 people, destroying at least 95,350 houses and damaging a further 224,100.
Sindh in the southeast and Balochistan in the southwest are the two most affected provinces. More than 504,000 livestock have been killed, nearly all of them in Balochistan, while damage to nearly 3,000 km of roads and 129 bridges have impeded movement around flood-affected areas.
