PAKISTAN
The Globe and Mail, Monday, July 2, 2007
SONYA FATAH
NEW DELHI — Flooding and torrential rain continue to hamper relief efforts in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, with at least 50 more deaths reported during the weekend and more than a million people affected by cyclone Yemyin.
Flash flooding caused serious damage to the infrastructure, destroying dikes, roads and bridges and cutting off contact with tens of thousands of people. By yesterday, rail links to the provincial capital, Quetta, were also disrupted when landslides destroyed a section of the rail track. Damage to a major section of the power transmission line in Quetta shrouded many parts of the province in darkness. The provincial death toll stood at 80 yesterday.
Government officials and aid workers, already struggling to deal with the existing disaster, were preparing for more harsh weather this week. “A new weather front is expected to hit by tomorrow or Wednesday, and it is expected to hit Karachi and Balochistan,” one aid worker said.
The onset of the rainy season has brought severe weather to much of South Asia, killing more than 600 people in storms and floods in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan over the past 10 days.
Hardest hit has been Pakistan. Between 1.2-million and 1.5-million people have been affected by the cyclone and the flash flooding that followed it, according to Ali Gul Kurd, the deputy relief commissioner for Balochistan.
Many people remain stranded a week after the cyclone hit Balochistan, with bad weather hampering relief efforts.
The Pakistani army ferried emergency supplies using transport planes and helicopter rescue missions, and dispatched troops to Turbat, in southern Balochistan, one of the worst-affected areas, close to the Arabian Sea. Naval boats carried relief supplies to badly hit areas.
International AID agencies also began assisting in relief efforts.
The extent of damage remained unclear. Aerial footage showed vast swathes of land under water, with many villages invisible and massive damage to cultivated land.
“We don’t have a 100-per-cent picture at the moment,” said an aid worker in a telephone interview. “We’ve been told that there are up to 250,000 homeless and 1.1 million affected in Balochistan. However, we don’t know how people are arriving at these sorts of figures.”
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