QUETTA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the worst-hit Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan on Monday and ordered authorities to speed up the dewatering of flood waters, fearing that more diseases would spread if it was allowed to stand for an extended period of time.
Floodwaters are gradually receding in both provinces and elsewhere in Pakistan, engulfed since mid-June in unprecedented monsoon rains and floods that have killed 1,719 people in the impoverished South Asian country. At one point in August, more than half a million people were living in tents across Pakistan.
Nationwide, the floods have affected 33 million people, damaged over two million homes, washed away thousands of kilometers of roads and destroyed 435 bridges. The overall fatalities have included 641 children and 345 women.
Waterborne diseases and skin infections are also spreading in Sindh and Balochistan.
On Monday, Sharif visited the district of Jacobabad in Sindh, from where he traveled onwards to the town of Sohbatpur in Balochistan.
“Though the water level has receded in many flood hit districts of Balochistan, I am worried that a huge level of water still stands in Sohbatpur, which might trigger further spread of water-borne and other diseases here," the PM said during his visit to Sohbatpur.
“I request the chief minister of Balochistan province to sit with planning commission officials and make a plan to expedite the de-watering process here because if we continue with this pace, it will take months to lower the water-level here."
Sharif said the federal government had given 85% of promised compensation to flood-affected people in Balochistan under the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) out of total allocated flood funds of Rs5 billion.
CM Balochistan Mir Abdul Qudus Bizenjo informed the PM the provincial government had launched a rehabilitation program for farmers in Balochistan at a cost of Rs16 billion.
Sharif has repeatedly asked developed countries — nations that experts say have impacted climate change the most — to scale up aid to his impoverished nation, where authorities say flood survivors will face a harsh winter this December.
