PAKISTAN: Flood alert targets 50,000 at risk:
ISLAMABAD, 25 May 2010 (IRIN) - The government of the northwestern Khyber-Pukhtoonkh’wa province has been asked by Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to prepare for a possible emergency in the districts of Mansehra, Kala Dhaka and Kohistan, downstream from the Hunza-Nagar district.
Distric of Shangla
54 villages swept away in Upper Swat, Shangla floods: GCO\
General Commanding Officer Maj.
Gen Javed Iqbal has said that floods in Upper Swat and Shangla caused much destruction leaving no sign of 54 villages.
While 5000 tourists are still trapped in Kalam.
Briefing media representatives during his visit to flood affected areas Maj Gen Javed Iqbal said that in the areas of Upper-Swat as many as 189 people have died in floods t adding that rescue teams of Pak-Security forces were carrying relief operation in almost all the flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said approximately 5000-Tourists are still trapped in Kalam out of which 1000 have been shifted to secure places.
More than 29 bridges, 14 basic health units, 1575 commercial units and 26 schools have been demolished in flood swept adding 70-kilomter road from Kalam to Khawazakhela has also eroded in flood, Maj. General said.
He said that army rescue teams are providing food items to 3.5 Lac flood affected people through helicopters.
Rescue operations to restore lives of people in the flood-hit areas of Swat and Kalam could take up to more than six-month, Major Gen Javed said.
Mansehra, Kala Dhaka and Kohistan, downstream from the Hunza-Nagar district.
The region is under threat from flooding from a lake that formed after a landslide in January.
About 32 villages in Hunza-Nagar are reported by the local administration to have been flooded.
According to the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance NGO operating in the area, villages in the Kohistan district are under threat, with some 30,000 to 50,000 people possibly vulnerable.
“People have been hearing about the possible flood here for over a week, but there is no information about emergency measures that are being taken or what people are to do if the flood comes,” Alamzeb Gul, 40, resident of Dasu, the principal town in the Kohistan district, told IRIN.
The district has a scattered population of about 500,000, according to official figures.
The Hunza Deputy Commissioner Zafar Waqar Taj told IRIN that lake water had inundated low-lying areas and the rate of increase in the lake’s water level had been steady.
People from the 32 flooded villages have been evacuated and are not allowed to go back.
According to media reports, inclement weather is hampering rescue operations in Hunza and surrounding areas.
Due to recent hot weather, melting glaciers have contributed more water to the lake, and Pakistan Army helicopter flights to the affected areas have now been suspended because of bad weather.
Sajid Naeem, director general of operations of NDMA, told the media in Islamabad on 24 May the water level in the lake had reached 108m and the gap between the water level and the spillway constructed after the landslide was 2.5m.
He said the water level had risen by 0.5m in the past 24 hours.
“Rescue operations are under way in the affected areas and about 14,000 people have so far moved from the affected areas, of whom about 10,000 have been housed in 31 camps.
The remaining 4,000 are living with their relatives,” Naeem said.
While the NDMA spokesman said facilities had been improved and military personnel posted to cope with the initial overflow from the lake,
some people in the Gilgit-Baltistan territory in the north are not satisfied.
On Sunday, about 400 people staged a protest in the village of Altit, following a visit by Pakistan’s Prime Minister. About 1,300 people have been housed in the village 15km east of the lake. The protesters were demanding more relief aid from the government.
“There are no doctors and no medicines, and the facilities are very poor,” Reza Hamid, 30, told IRIN by telephone from the town of Gilgit, where he and his family have been sheltered in a school building.
(IN THE END... PLEASE GIVE A MOMENT TO ALL THOSE INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO HAS LOST THEIR LIVES BECAUSE OF POOR ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN ... This is the moment Where we should not think about for our personal interest and any kind of past problems because it can happen to any one...
Innocent people are dying and Government is doing just nothing than only completing their Foreign tours... Poor people has lost their homes . Clothes , No food , No medicines and Medical treatment ... Even Media can reach at them and getting footage but Where is Politicians and Government.
May God bless them and Give them strength to stay safe and healthy.
All the politicians are playing hide and seek and Changing turns and making their whole nation Look stupid .. Like one says hey Look at left-side and other says look at right-side and this keeps going and i am so sorry our nation is also following them... Please GOD Give all the Pakistani Nation courage and so that they can face all the difficulties in front of them for current and future life ... Ameen.
My own Class mate's village has been destroyed because of this flood. Please pray for them and for us as well cause If it increases. Dera Ghazi Khan's city is not so far... Please Pray...
Thanks ...
Saqib Khawaja
