Pakistan floods kill another 24 people

Another 24 people lost their lives in flood-related incidents across Pakistan over the past 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to 1,314, the country’s national disaster agency said on Sunday.

A majority of the latest fatalities, 19, were reported from the southern province of Sindh, where a fresh spell of floods has inundated more land in the central districts over the past 24 hours, pushing the overall tally in the province to 511 since mid-June.

Another three people were killed in separate flood-related mishaps in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has also been hit hard by the swirling floods caused by torrential rains.

Since June 14, a total of 289 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by 260 fatalities in Balochistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Some 189 people have died in the northeastern Punjab province, the authority said.

A total of 12,703 people have been injured across the country in rain and flood-related incidents since June 14.

Thousands more were evacuated from different parts of Jamshoro district of Sindh as the administration made cuts in Manchhar Lake, Asia’s one of largest lakes, to save the main city.

The army, navy and air force planes made dozens of sorties to evacuate hundreds of stranded people from different parts of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, separate statements from the three forces said.

Floods caused by unprecedented rains have inundated a third of the country, prompting the government to issue an international appeal.

Constant rains and raging floods have already destroyed a large chunk of the country’s infrastructure and agricultural lands, including hundreds of thousands of houses, roads, and bridges, as well as washing away over a million animals.

Almost 45% of the country’s cropland has already been inundated by the floods, posing a serious threat to food security and further adding to the already skyrocketing inflation.