DADU: The decision to make a cut into the embankment of Manchar Lake to prevent the country’s biggest lake bursting its banks and inundating nearby towns after unprecedented flooding, has actually intensified the flooding situation in over 100 villages in five union councils.
The affected UCs are Wahur, Channa, Arazi, Jafferabad, and Bubak.
Authorities on Sunday breached the country’s largest freshwater lake at RD 14 and 15 (Bagh-i-Yousuf), displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes in the hope of draining enough water to stop the lake bursting its banks and swamping more densely populated areas, but water level in the lake remained dangerously high.
Army men have arrived in Sehwan quickly and have begun the rescue and relief effort.
The situation in the region, where the highways leading to the airport and a Parco oil station were flooded, is being constantly watched by the army. The individuals trapped in flooded UCs are being moved to safe regions of the city using every method at their disposal. Floodwater had travelled eight kilometers from Bhan Syedabad town, but the local population was not thought to be in any immediate danger.
Fariduddin Mustafa, a former captain and the deputy commissioner for Jamshoro, reported that 30 boats were being utilized to rescue those trapped in their inundated villages. According to reports, the provincial government has established a transportation service to take rescued individuals from at-risk districts to relief camps.
The deluge gushing out of the ‘relief cut’ had hit Bubak, Dal, Wahur, Pakka Channa and Arazi UCs with full force, Mahesh Kumar, an engineer in the irrigation department, was quoted as saying in Daily Dawn.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,314, including 458 children, National Disaster Management Agency said.
The floods have led to a growing humanitarian crisis, with officials especially concerned about the wellbeing of pregnant women and young mothers.
Over 400,000 pregnant women in badly affected Sindh province have been displaced by the floods, with only 891 making it to relief camps, according to data from the provincial government released on Friday.
The United Nations has called for $160 million in aid to help the victims of the floods, but Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the cost of the damage was far higher than that.
