Historic floods in Pakistan: a race against time for rescuers

Published on: 07/09/2022 – 03:05 Flooded, a third of Pakistan is under water. The situation could deteriorate further, fear the inhabitants who are evacuated daily in the province of Sindh. Report from our special envoys. The province of Sind, in Pakistan, is engulfed… Hundreds of towns and villages are submerged. More than 33 million people were affected and at least 1300 people died. And the floods, the worst in the country’s history, continue to spread on Tuesday, September 6. Every day, rescuers are going to help the inhabitants of Sindh trapped, because some towns in the district of Dadu (south) have not been completely evacuated. >> Pakistan: the population on the front line to fight the rising waters For 5 days, the boat of Salman Naseer, a rescuer from the Edhi Foundation, has been surveying the cities to bring the Pakistanis to “safe places”. “The water, instead of decreasing, is rising more and more every day,” he worries. The boat fills up in minutes. “We had not imagined that there could be such an amount of water… At first, there was rain and the city was flooded. Then there were floods because of the rivers “, says Naweed Ali, a disaster victim. He did not leave his home with peace of mind. “We evacuated our family but a few men still live here to watch over our property because at night thieves come on boats and loot the abandoned houses,” he laments. Shayan Ali, another disaster victim, preferred to leave his home. home, deploring the lack of electricity, food and water, as well as the preponderance of mosquitoes. A deterioration of the feared situationThe situation could deteriorate further. Pakistan’s largest body of water, Lake Manchar, used for water storage, is overflowing. Its valves are under strong pressure, threatening thousands of homes. Fateh Mohammad evokes “a bomb about to explode”. “It will flood the districts of Dadu and Sehwan where our homes are located. Our families are terrified. We don’t know where to go, or what to do with our property,” he said nervously. A deterioration envisaged by the United Nations (UN) which launched an airlift to deliver aid from Dubai. According to her, more than 6 million people need assistance.