Deadly rains cause colossal damage in Pakistan

[S.U.R.B.]

Deadly rains cause colossal damage in Pakistan

By Web DeskPublished: August 4, 2013



Pakistani disaster relief officials issued fresh flood warnings Sunday after the death toll from heavy monsoon rains rose to over 51 and waters paralysed parts of the largest city Karachi.
Flash floods caused by monsoon downpours have inundated many cities and towns, and swept away homes in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Flooding in Peshawar and nearby areas left thousands homeless, causing colossal damage.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority warned that more thunderstorms and heavy rains were expected on Monday and some rivers may flood.
The two day death toll in Karachi stands at 22, Express News reported. At least 20 deaths have also been reported in the northwest and six in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue operations and fresh showers continue.
Pakistan has suffered devastating monsoon floods for the last three years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.
Army engineers helped relief efforts in Karachi on Sunday where roads and streets were flooded and the city was practically paralysed. Authorities in the city of 18 million people, which contributes 42 percent of Pakistan’s GDP, said it would take more than two days to clear up after the water flooded markets, buildings and houses and blocked roads.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent three of his cabinet ministers to inspect damage in flood-hit areas. According to an initial survey, 80,000 acres of land with wheat, rice, maize and cotton crops have been devastated.
Weather forecast
Lahore will see scattered thunderstorm/rain.
Sindh will have isolated heavy falls (Karachi, Mirpur Khas, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana Divisions)
Eastern and Coastal Balochistan, DG Khan Division and Kashmir will also experience rain during the next 24 hours.
Scattered thunderstorm/rain may also occur over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha,Gujranwala, Lahore and Bahawalpur Divisions) including upper catchmentsof Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers.
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END OF LIVE UPDATES
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7:41pm
Flood emergency has been declared across Dera Ghazi Khan division and the army has been called in for rescue operations by the Punjab government. According to an initial survey, 80,000 acres of land with wheat, rice, maize and cotton crops have been devastated.
Water has also flooded the holy shrine of Hazrat Hamza Sultan, son of Hazrat Ali, buried in the hills of sub-district Dajal of district Rajanpur.
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7:15pm
Pakistan Navy rescues 48 people in rain-affected Jalbani Goth and Gadap Town in Karachi.
Rain in Hyderabad has stopped but the drainage of rain water is still underway. Water is being drained from the main city and from Latifabad.
A total of 24 water pumping machines have been activated round the clock to dispose accumulated rainwater in the submerged areas of Hyderabad, Latifabad and Qasimabad Taluka.
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7:10pm
The Pakistan Army, Rangers and Navy teams have succeeded in rescuing several trapped citizens in Karachi.
In Gulistan-e-Jauhar block 9, the roof of a house collapsed, killing Khero bibi and her 12-year-old son Kashif.
Commissioner Hyderabad Division Jamal Mustafa Syed declares rain emergency in all districts of the division, and asks deputy commissioners to remain on high alert in order to meet any eventuality during heavy monsoon rains.
According to Directorate of Sindh Information Hyderabad Region, the Commissioner has also asked the heads of Hyderabad Development Authority, Water and Sanitation Agency, Municipal Corporation and Taluka Municipal Administrations of Hyderabad district to declare an emergency in their respect departments along with a cancellation of leaves of all officers, officials and employees so that the required staff could be available for rescue and relief work in case of emergency.
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6:15pm
Enraged citizens have taken to the streets in those parts of Karachi facing the brunt of power outages and flooding.
6:02pm
As predicted by the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD), in the next 24 hours:
Lahore will see scattered thunderstorm/rain.
Sindh will have isolated heavy falls (Karachi, Mirpur Khas, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana Divisions)
Eastern and Coastal Balochistan, DG Khan Division and Kashmir will also experience rain during the next 24 hours.
Scattered thunderstorm/rain may also occur over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha,Gujranwala, Lahore and Bahawalpur Divisions) including upper catchmentsof Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers.
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5:48pm
The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) says that the Indus river at Kalabagh and Chashma and the Kabul river at Nowshera could attain medium to high flood level during the next 24 hours.
According to the daily FFC report, medium to high flood situation in hill ******** of D.G. Khan Division and eastern Balochistan was also likely to continue during the same period.

5:25pm
President Asif Ali Zardari expresses profound grief and sorrow over the loss of lives and devastation caused by torrential rains and flash floods in various parts of the country.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

It’s an ominous situation especially for the population located in those areas.
It just exposes the dirt that we used to push under the fancy carpet of our provincial politics.
While opening a discussion on this, i could very obviously see a short history of threads being opened on the same topic, year after year. Keeping in mind the span of existence of this discussion forum we can very easily fathom how ruthless and reckless we’ve been as a nation to ignore such consequences of our mismanagement.
We chose to build mega cities but failed to care about the sewage needs. We inherited agriculture as a back bone of our economy and cared less about managing our reservoirs.
(If you let me say, we couldn't even reach a state of balance between agriculture and industry while considering the future trends and hence failed to develop the expertise in doing any business in the greater and rather newer fields to generate a handsome revenue for the country.)

I’ll not be surprised to see this trend continue , in 2014, 2015 and onwards. Our media just mentions it,when the water has already passed under the bridge. Alas! our lip service failed to save our countrymen before as well

They say you’ve to pass through hell and high water to achieve what you want. I’m just trying to figure it out,what’s really missing in this recipe.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

Residents stands on a electricity pylon in a flooded area in Karachi on August 4, 2013. PHOTO: AFP

 

[Argus Panoptes]

...............
I’ll not be surprised to see this trend continue , in 2014, 2015 and onwards. Our media just mentions it,when the water has already passed under the bridge. Alas! our lip service failed to save our countrymen before as well

They say you’ve to pass through hell and high water to achieve what you want. I’m just trying to figure it out,what’s really missing in this recipe.

I think that the real problem is the huge rate of growth of our cities with increase in local population and increase by migration from rural areas to cities. That does not allow for proper provision of social services and leaves infrastructure such as drainage lagging behind the actual requirements.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

I think that the real problem is the huge rate of growth of our cities with increase in local population and increase by migration from rural areas to cities. That does not allow for proper provision of social services and leaves infrastructure such as drainage lagging behind the actual requirements.

I share your view on it.But they calculate the growth rates with some purpose in mind.And that purpose is to plan something for the masses living or aspiring to live in that area.

Some of the countries in our region go through almost the similar problem during this season.
But they did manage ,they learn.And hence they planned.
Why do my men require another 60-70 years to be on the same page?

You know the last time troops were called in India to help the population which was severely handicapped by a calamity of such type (with a magnitude way bigger than this was in July-2005)?

Now we take a look at the magnitude and lets compare in our minds what it would have been if that has happened on our side.

Troops were deployed after the sudden rains -- measuring up to 94.4 centimeters (37.1 inches) in one day in some areas of Mumbai -- stranded tens of thousands of people.

5-6 days of a soothing spell and my country becomes a drain.

A lot of (tax payer's/aid) money is used on the feasibility studies of projects which mostly goes to waste....just like this muddy water will go, eventually with some precious lives.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

Bigger flooding threat feared in coming weeks


QUETTA / MULTAN / HYDERABAD / ISLAMABAD:
The head of the National Disaster Management Authority on Monday downplayed the flash flooding calamity that hit parts of the country last week, insisting that things were under control for now but warned of challenges in the upcoming weeks and months.
Still the NDMA is ready to take on these greater challenges expected in the upcoming months, its chief Major General Muhammad Saeed Aleem said.
On Monday, Maj Gen Aleem, accompanied by climate experts and Minister for Science and Technology Anusha Rahman, gave an overall review of the present floods situation across the country.
Arif Mehmood, the metrological department chief, said that although rainfall recorded in July was 30 per cent less than last year, the August rainfall caused flooding across different parts of the country.
According to the chairman, heavy rainfall began 31st July and the impact from these rains was felt 1st August onwards.
However, he said, with communication and coordination with the district and provincial authorities, everything seems to be under control.
As more rainfall is expected in September, the authority fears flash flooding and hill ******** across different parts of the country particularly in the central part.
In his presentation, Brigadier Kamran Zia said that Rajanpur and Jhal Magsi were areas of concern this year. But since none of the rivers seem to have sent high flood signals the authorities are at ease. For the month of September, a plus or minus 10% rain is expected as compared to last year when the rain recorded was 15% more than the predicted forecast.
For the moment, NDMA does not need to mobilise international donors as it already has sufficient funds. Maj Gen Aleem said that the authority will utilise the resources available and might not seek foreign assistance this time around. “At the moment, we are going to work with what we have,” he added
Anusha Rehman, minister for science and technology, said that both the PDMA and NDMA have been working closely on various issues from disaster risk reduction to disaster management. “We have to minimize floods for which the provinces and the districts should be prepared” she said.
An NDMA summary put the number of deaths from the rain calamity at 58. Ten fatalities each were reported from Balochistan and K-P. Another 15 deaths were reported in Punjab, 8 from Sindh, 12 from Fata and 3 from Azad Kashmir. Crops grown on 135,051 acres of land were affected nationwide. Some 15 relief camps have been set up in Punjab and Sindh.
Four electrocuted in Hyderabad
Four children of a family were electrocuted to death on Monday in Hyderabad. Two sisters, Kainat and Sawera, and their cousins, Deedar and Iqbalan, were returning home after buying confectioneries in Junejo Colony in Qasimabad taluka when the tragedy struck. They were wading through a puddle on a street where a wire connected to an electric pole was anchored. The residents claim that they contacted the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company for help, but received no response.
Three dead in Rajanpur
Three people have died in the Lunti Saeedaan area of Rajanpur district, DCO Ghazi Amanullah told The Express Tribune.
Some 90 villages and 11 union councils were inundated after hill ******** swept past rural areas in the district, Amanullah said.
In Layyah, the surroundings of Indus River bank are vacated by the district government as 12 villages submerged in nearer areas around the river Indus.
Two more fatalities in Balochistan
As downpours continue in Balochistan, one man was reported dead after he was swept away by flood water into a river drain near Turbat. Another man was rescued at the same site.
A child was killed in a roof collapse in Langa Street in Dera Murad Jamali.
Deputy Commissioner Jhal Magsi Tariqur Rehman told reporters that after heavy rains in and around Khuzdar the water level had increased in Mula River and flood water had entered Ghandawa Town.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

Fatalities of monsoon rains: Five children drown in Malir riverbank

KARACHI:
As the Pakistan Navy, civil administration and rescue agencies tried to locate the body of the young engineer who, along with his wife and infant, drowned two days ago in the Buffer Zone Nala, more deaths were reported on Tuesday after five kids drowned in the Malir rivers.
So far, more than 40 people have lost their lives in Karachi in rain-related incidents – most of the deaths occurred due to drowning in the nalas and riverbanks.
The deceased children were identified as Manzur Ahmed and Hasnain – sons of Lal Mohammad, Mahnoor and Maria – daughters of Mureed, and Ali, son of Ghulam Nabi. The children were aged between eight to ten years.
“The children were trying to swim in the Malir River when they drowned,” MPA Sajid Jokhio, who was present at the site, told The Express Tribune. “We found the bodies on our own as no one reach the site when the incident was reported.”
Body still missing
Meanwhile, divers of the Pakistan Navy in assistance of the civil administration continued to search for the body of the ill-fated engineer, Muzaffar, whose car plunged into a Karachi nala on the night between Saturday and Sunday.
The body of his wife Yasmin, 26, and her one-and-a-half-year old son Abeer were taken out of the car on Monday. It took emergency services two days to haul out the vehicle from the Buffer Zone Nala.
“We are trying our level best to find Muzaffar,” a navy diver, Wajid, told The Express Tribune. “Thankfully, the water level has reduced but the rescue operation is taking time due to the large quantity of garbage in the nala.”
Navy divers suspected that the flow of water might have swept the body away. “There are two scenarios as to why we haven’t been able to recover the body as yet – either it was swept away with the flow of water or it is stuck in the garbage,” said another navy diver, Azhar Ali, adding that the civil administration was assisting the navy’s personnel by clearing out the garbage from the nala.

Gone too soon
Muzaffar belonged to an educated family of Hyderabad. His father Saleem Anwar was a journalist by profession. The deceased was one of nine siblings. One of his brothers passed away recently in a bus accident.
Muzaffar, an MBA graduate, was a chemical engineer at a private firm in Karachi. “Muzaffar and Yasmin liked each other even before they were married. They were living happily with each other,” his aunt told The Express Tribune. “We are still in shock over their deaths and can’t understand why this tragedy took place.”
The family, however, blamed the government for the tragic incident. “Everyone knows that there was no boundary around the nala which could prevent a car from plunging into it but still nothing was done,” said victims’ uncle, Sabir. “We just want justice. The people who are responsible should be punished so that such incidents do not take place in the future.”
The funeral prayers for Yasmin and Abeer were offered at the Quba Masjid in North Karachi and later they were buried at the Shah Mohammad graveyard. “We wanted to bury the couple and their son but were unable to do so as Muzaffar is still missing and the bodies of the mother and son were in a very bad condition,” said the family. “We are now just praying to recover Muzaffar to bury him.”
Their relatives said that the delayed rescue operation started only after the family approached the high-ups. “They had gone to Tariq road for shopping but tragedy struck on the way,” said the family. After a passage of two days, Sindh Local Bodies Minister Owais Muzaffar took notice of the incident and asked the Karachi Commissioner to submit a report within three days.

According to the Director General Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab Muhammad Asif ,about 90 villages and 60,000-65,000 people are affected by floods while about 4000 people are lodged in relief camps.