Children and women are becoming more vulnerable as tens of thousands of people suffer from infectious and water-borne diseases in flood-hit Pakistan, government data showed and UNICEF said on Friday, as the total death toll from the inundation surpassed 1,500.
In a report issued on Friday, the Sindh Directorate General Health Services said 92,797 citizens were treated on September 15 (Thursday). Of these, 588 were confirmed to have malaria with another 10,604 cases. The report said that 17,977 cases of diarrhoea and 20,064 skin disease cases were reported on Thursday, alongside 28 cases of dengue. A total of 2.3 million patients have been treated since July 1 in the field and mobile hospitals set up in the flooded region.
As flood waters begin to drain away, which officials say may take two to six months in different areas, the flooded regions have become infested with diseases including malaria, dengue fever, diarrhoea and skin problems, Sindh provincial government said in a report issued on Friday. It said more than 90,000 people were treated in the province in a single day, which has been the hardest hit by the cataclysmic floods.
Record monsoon rains in south and southwest Pakistan and glacial melt in northern areas triggered the flooding that has impacted nearly 33 million people in the South Asian nation of 220 million, sweeping away homes, crops, bridges, roads and livestock in damages estimated at $30 billion.
The National Disaster Management Authority has reported 1,545 deaths, including 552 children and 315 women. Hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced are in dire need of support in term of food, shelter, clean drinking water, toilets, and medicines. Many have been sleeping in the open by the side of elevated highways.
On Friday, there were signs of life returning to normal in parts of the province as water levels continued to recede.
Dadu Deputy Commissioner (DC) Murtaza Ali Shah said the level of floodwater had dropped by approximately two feet at various spots, including the ring bund, in the district’s Mehar city. He said there was still eight to night-feet-high water in the city’s adjoining areas, but the level was continuously reducing. And “markets in the city have started opening partially,” he added.
Dadu Assistant Commissioner Mohsin Sheikh said the residents of Mehar, who had shifted to safer locations in the wake of floods, had started returning after the drop in water levels.
Moreover, DC Shah said water levels had also dropped by the same measure in Khairpur Nathan Shah.
In Johi, MNA Rafique Jamali, elected from Dadu’s NA-235 constituency, said the water level was around eight to nine feet high in the city and that the water level was dropping at the city’s ring bund. He said markets had started opening partially in Johi.
PPP MNA Sikandar Ali Rahoupoto, who has been elected from Jamshoro’s NA-233 constituency, estimated that the water was standing up to eight to nine feet in Bhan Syedabad and adjoining areas after the levels dropped by around two feet. “Bhan Syedebad has partially opened,” he said.
According to the official in charge of the irrigation cell for Manchhar Lake, Sher Mohammad Mallah, the water level in Manchhar Lake – which has been one of the main threats province reeling from floods – was recorded at 121.5-foot reduced level on Friday morning.
The Flood Forecasting Division website showed that the River Indus was witnessing a medium-level flood at Kotri on Friday afternoon.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless by flooding in the southern Sindh province, with many sleeping by the side of elevated highways to protect themselves from the water.
