Perilous Times
Pakistan floods kill up to 1500 as disease spreads
* From: NewsCore
* August 03, 2010 1:00AM
FLASH floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains so far killed up to
1500 people in Pakistan, a government minister confirmed this morning.
"There are 774 deaths registered with us, but the total number killed
in the flood is 1,200 to 1,500," Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information
minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told a news conference in
Peshawar.
"There are 129 people still missing."
Pakistan's largest charity, the Edhi Foundation, and a northwest-based
Cabinet minister earlier put the death toll at more than 1200.
Officials in other provinces who earlier gave a combined death toll of
128 effectively pushed the overall nationwide toll to more than 1300.
The International Committee of the Red Cross earlier announced that up
to 2.5 million people across Pakistan were affected by the heavy
flooding.
"In the worst-affected areas, entire villages were washed away without
warning by walls of flood water," it said in a statement, noting that
thousands of people "have lost everything."
Pakistani officials warned that a lack of drinking water was spreading
diseases, including cholera, and said they were working to evacuate
people from affected areas such as Swat, the scene last summer of a
major offensive against the Taliban.
Syed Zahir Ali Shah, the health minister for the northwestern province
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, estimated that about 100,000 people, mostly
children, were suffering from illness such as gastroenteritis.
A spokesman for the charity World Vision said teams had visited those
affected around the main northwestern city of Peshawar but that those
further north had been inaccessible by road until yesterday morning.
"They don't have drinking water or food. They said there have been some
visible signs of water-borne diseases," Muhammad Ali said, warning that
the death toll was likely to rise further as aid workers reached more
areas.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon pledged aid of up to $11 million to meet the
humanitarian needs of those affected by the crisis, saying he was
"deeply saddened" by the floods.
The US government announced a $10 million aid pledge and rushed
helicopters and boats to Pakistan. China also promised $1.5 million,
according to the official Xinhua news agency. The UK pledged £5 million
($13 million) to help those left homeless by the floods.
Pakistan's meteorological service forecast rains of up to 200
millimetres in the next weeks across the northwest,
Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the central province of Punjab and
Sindh in the south.