Pakistan flood toll nears 900 as cholera emerges
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – The death toll from Pakistan's worst floods in living memory neared 900 on Sunday as outbreaks of waterborne disease emerged and penniless survivors streamed out of the raging torrents.
Up to one million people have been affected in all, according to the UN, in a country already reeling from years of extremist bloodshed.
"Rescue teams have found 62 more bodies from Peshawar, Charsada and Nowshera towns since Saturday evening, raising the death toll to 862," Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial information minister Mian IftikharHussain told AFP.
"This is the worst flood in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the country's history," Hussain said.
Thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed in the northwest and Pakistani Kashmir. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where many poor families live in remote mountain villages, has been the hardest-hit province.
"We still do not have the full picture because of the breakdown in communications, we have still difficulties to reach out to our offices in Nowshera, in Swat, in Charsada," Manuel Bessler, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance in Pakistan, told the BBC.
"We have a planning figure of one million people affected directly by the floods," he said.
Hussain said the death toll from torrential monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides was on the rise despite the water level receding in some areas, and that at least 150 people were still missing.
Pakistani television and photographs shot from helicopters showed people clinging to the walls and rooftops of damaged houses as gushing waters rampaged through villages.
Carrying their belongings and children on their backs, some walked barefoot through the water to seek safety.
Hundreds of flood survivors have been streaming into the major northwest city of Peshawar, many of them penniless after the waters destroyed their homes and businesses.
Muqaddir Khan, 25, who fled the floods with nine relatives, told AFP he had lost everything.
"I laboured hard in Saudi Arabia for three years and set up a small shop which was swept away by flooding in minutes," Khan said.
Razia Bibi, 48, said she and her family had a sleepless night watching the floodwaters rise.
"My house has now gone under water and I could escape with only a few belongings," Bibi said.
Pakistan's weather bureau said an "unprecedented" 312 millimetres (12 inches) of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the northwest but predicted only scattered showers during coming days.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, flash floods have killed at least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families, officials said.
More than 3,700 houses have been swept away by the floods in Pakistan and the number of people made homeless is rising, the provincial minister said.
"The flash floods destroyed maize and (rice) paddy crops in Nowshera," Hussain said.
"Our rescue teams are also trying to extricate some 1,500 tourists who are stranded in the Kalam and Behrain towns of Swat district," he said, referring to a region where the military last year waged a major anti-Taliban offensive.
"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," Hussain added.
Authorities are using school buildings as emergency shelters, and are providing food, medicines and other basic necessities, the minister said.
However, authorities said they had repaired a damaged portion of the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway to restore the northwest region's road links with the rest of Pakistan.
The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open more roads and divert swollen rivers.
The European Commission said it had given 30 million euros (39 million dollars) in humanitarian aid to help the most needy.
The flooding capped a week of tragedy for Pakistan after an airliner crashed into hills near Islamabad Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100801/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanweatherfloods_20100801083920
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