Pakistan: Fresh rains affect rescue and relief efforts Bolan river spate claims three

Three persons, including EDO Education, Kachhi, were killed and two others injured by flash flood in Bolan River near Mach, some 70 km east of here, on Friday.

Sources said that Executive District Officer Education Kachhi Bolan Babo Imdad Hussain along with other personnel arrived in Mach to hand over monthly salary of female teachers. His vehicle was washed away by flash flood in Mach stream while returning back to Dhadar. As a result, he himself, his brother Niaz and the driver Wilson Masih died on the spot. Two other persons suffered serious injuries who were identified as Muhammad Akbar and Qazi Muhammad Jan. The bodies and injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Mach and later, the injured were referred to Quetta based hospital. The vehicles had to be turned to alternative route passing through Mach stream as construction work of a small bridge on Mach stream was suspended for the last three years. The contractor who was said to be the brother of a federal minister was avoiding to restart and complete the construction work.

Resultantly, after torrential rains in hill areas, Mach stream experiences high flood which had claimed a number of lives during last few years. Rain hinders rescue efforts in flood-hit Sindh: Fresh rains hampered rescue efforts in Sindh on Friday as thousands of people trying to leave flood-threatened towns remained stranded, a provincial irrigation minister said. "Fresh rains have affected rescue and relief efforts and thousands of people are still stranded in different towns of Dadu district," said Sindh's irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo. He said that more rain was due Saturday, further endangering the strained river embankments as officials, military and local residents worked to bolster the defences around Dadu district. "Dadu district and the town of Johi are still in danger of flooding, but rain is hampering our mobility to reach out to the maximum people," he added.

The devastating floods have left 10 million people without shelter nationwide, according to UN figures, with UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano describing it as "one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history". Advancing floodwaters continue to threaten parts of Sindh province, with 19 of its 23 districts deluged and 2.8 million people displaced, according to provincial authorities.

Meanwhile, "our life is worse than death. Eid is for the living, but we are neither alive nor dead," says a solemn 15-year-old Rukhsana, approaching this year's Muslim holiday with sad defeat. "We have no clothes, no food, no shoes and no home. My brother is small, he can't fight the looters who snatch all the food from the aid trucks," she says. Abandoned by her father after her mother died, the teenage refugee will spend Saturday's Eid holiday with her grandmother and 10-year-old brother in a makeshift camp 450 kilometres south of her hometown of Garhi Khero. While most of the Muslim world celebrated Eid on Friday, the festival falls on Saturday in Pakistan.