Flooding Maroons 500,000 in Balochistan; 2,000 Houses Destroyed

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Flooding in the province of Balochistan has left at least half a million people marooned, besides destroying over 2,000 house, Chief Secretary of Balochistan Babar Yaqoob Fateh said on Saturday. Torrential rains and flash floods in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad districts have caused damage, destroyed standing crops on thousands of acres completely washed away road network. “Dera Allah Yar, Dera Murad Jamali, Sohbat pur, Manjopur, Manjoshori areas are still under two to six feet of water, increasing the plight of the thousands of families living in these areas,” he said while talking to reporters at the Provincial Disaster Management Auhtority’s office in Quetta. Yaqoob said that he had contacted his counterpart in Sindh and asked him not to divert water from Jacobabad towards Balochistan as it would worsen the situation in the country’s largest province. “We are in contact with the Sindh government to avoid more losses in Balochistan,” he said. The provincial official said that losses caused by the flash floods and hill torrents in northern and southern Balochistan were so huge that the provincial government alone could not cope with the calamity. “International humanitarian organisations, federal government and philanthropists should come forward and assist us in the relief and rehabilitation process,” Babar said. Expressing concern over the spread of water-borne diseases and scarcity of food and potable water, he said that provincial government was fighting the challenge by utilising all its available resources. He said that PDMA, provincial government, Army and FC were engaged in the rescue and relief operation as six Army helicopters and 18 boats were shifting the flood-affected families to relief camps set up in the Naseerabad and Jaffarabd districts.