Summary 240 houses, 9 schools, 80pc link roads got affected by the downpour.
Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)
ISLAMABAD - At least 79 people have been killed and 101 are injured as torrential rains continued to play havoc in Pakistan over the past 10 days, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) informed in a press release.
The authority said as many as ten persons were killed in Punjab, 19 in Baluchistan, 10 in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and 22 in Fata. Moreover, 240 houses have also been damaged due to rain-related incidents, landslides and avalanches in different parts of the country. These include 50 houses in Baluchistan, 77 in KP, 36 in Fata, four in Punjab and 73 in Azaad Jammu and Kashmir.
The NDMA authorities said in a statement that the majority of these deaths and injuries were caused by collapsing of the buildings since they are poorly built; particularly in rural areas, the buildings are most susceptible to collapse during heavy spring rains.
In Sarli Sacha Sharki village, some 40 kilometers away from Muzaffarabad, a giant boulder from a mountain overlooking the village fell on a house, killing a man, his wife and two sons.
A couple, Khalid Hussain and Shaheena, died in the Ochar Mohallah of Bagh district after their house was struck by a mudslide before dawn on Saturday. The couple’s daughter was pulled out alive by rescuers.
Moreover, the downpour also caused a coal mine collapse in northwestern Pakistan over the weekend. As of Monday, the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan confirmed that 10 workers had been killed.
After heavy rains people are now terrified of the flood for which the warnings have been issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department. The people of Katcha areas specifically, are more frightened about looming dangers for them. As per last year 2015, the floods damaged millions of trees, fields and livestock, causing hardships for the people and forced them to leave their homes from the low lying areas to upper areas.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo said the recent rain spell has adversely damaged the crops of wheat, maize and fodder on thousands of acres of Depalpur area of district Okara.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Manzoor Watoo said that due to the thunderstorm and hailstorms the crops of maize and wheat on thousands of acres of the villages of Depalpur from Bahawaldas to Boman and other numerous villages have faced destruction.
He urged the government to without any further delays, take notice and announce relief packages for the affectees of the disaster. While commenting on the Kissan package of Rs 100 millions of the chief minister, Mian Manzoor Wattoo said the package was no different from the PM Kissan package of Rs 341 billion.
PPP provincial president maintained that the farmers are devastated economically due to the losses inflicted by the fifth successive wheat crops, solely attributed to the anti-farmers policy of the PML-N government.
Recently, in a workshop held focusing on localizing disaster-risk reduction global frameworks jointly organized by the Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI) and the Asian Disaster Risk Reduction Network (ADRRN), the experts criticized the federal government for keeping disaster management out of its ‘priority list’.
The PDI Director, Sikander Brohi, said that 82,802 people had lost their lives – the largest number of deaths in the region – as a result of different disasters in Pakistan from 2005 to 2014 while 49,784,339 people were affected during the same period.
“Disaster management systems at federal and provincial levels have failed in preventing or minimizing disaster losses due to overlapping of the roles and responsibilities, and low priority and low budget for disaster management in Pakistan,” he said.
