pakistan....

Ramadan human crisis in Pakistan as more flee disaster


Agencies

KARACHI, Aug 26: Pakistan ordered nearly half a million people to evacuate three towns on Thursday, as floodwaters broke through a river embankment threatening more havoc in a country already brought to its knees by the month-long disaster.



NO EID CHEER ... Pakistani boys who were displaced by floods suffering from diarrhea are treated at the pediatric ward of the hospital in Sukkar.



A warning was issued after floods caused a breach in one of the embankments at Surjani village in Thatta, close to the Indus river.



Officials are urging anyone left in the southern towns of Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Daro to evacuate immediately as floodwaters have broken through a levee, endangering areas previously untouched.



Mansoor Shaikh, a top government official in the Thatta district, told how the swollen Indus River broke through the Sur Jani embankment, in southern Sindh province on Wednesday, threatening the towns of Sujawal, Daro and Mir Pur Batoro. He said most of the 400,000 people, who live in the area, are thought to have been evacuated already, but those remaining were warned to flee.



DESPERATE ... These children, among millions displaced by the flood, were happy to get whatever food thrown at them.



In the southern province of Sindh, where the floods have washed away huge swathes of rich farmland on which Pakistan's spluttering economy depends, a senior administration official commented:



"We have warned people of Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Daro towns to leave for safer places in view of possible flooding there."



Authorities were also battling on Thursday to save the city of Shahdadkot from surging waters, after most of its 100,000 residents were moved to safety.



Rescuers safely evacuated 90 per cent of people from the nearby flooded town of Qubo Saeed Khan. However, efforts were being made to rescue thousands of others stranded in at least 25 villages around the town.



"We are using helicopters and naval boats to evacuate these people," local administration official, Yaseen Shar, said.



Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from flood-threatened areas close to Hyderabad, on the lower reaches of the Indus, where more than 40 nearby villages have been swept away.



Barkaat Rizvi, spokesman for the Hyderabad district administration, has said residents are still leaving vulnerable areas, adding: "Danger is still there."



Pakistan's worst humanitarian catastrophe has already affected more than 17 million people, while officials warn that millions are at risk from water-borne diseases and food shortages. Around 1,500 people have been confirmed dead, but UN officials have suggested the death toll could prove to be higher.



The United Nations warned that 800,000 people in desperate need of aid have been cut off by the deluge across the country and appealed for more helicopters to deliver supplies to those people reachable only by air.



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