Over 50 Dies in Pakistan Monsoon Floods

 

Heavy monsoon rains lashed Pakistan on Wednesday, causing deaths, flooding roads and disrupting lives in areas where residents already were struggling to recover from floods last summer that affected 33 million people and killed 1,739, officials said.

“Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since the start of the monsoon on June 25,” a national disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during this period.

The majority of the deaths was in eastern Punjab province, and was mainly due to electrocution and building collapses, official data showed.

 

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the bodies of eight children were recovered from a landslide in the Shangla district on Thursday, according to the emergency service Rescue 1122’s spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi.

 

He said rescuers were still searching for other children trapped in the debris.

Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, said it had received record-breaking rainfall on Wednesday, turning roads into rivers and leaving almost 35 percent without electricity and water this week.

The monsoon season officially started this week and will continue until September in the South Asian country. The first spell of rainy weather was expected to last until Saturday.

Lahore, which is Pakistan’s cultural capital, received a record 272 millimeters (10.7 inches) of rain in nine hours Wednesday, flooding streets and the city’s canal. Efforts were underway to clear the water, Mohsin Naqvi, the top government official in Punjab province, said.

The last time Lahore received such a deluge was 30 years ago, officials said. Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, also had a heavy downpour this week. The National Disaster Management Authority warned local authorities to prepare for emergencies such as flooding and landslides.

Last summer’s devastating floods caused $30 billion in damage in cash-strapped Pakistan.

 

The Meteorological Department has predicted more heavy rainfall nationwide in the days ahead and warned of potential flooding in the catchment areas of Punjab’s major rivers.

The province’s disaster management authority said Friday it is working to relocate people living along the waterways.

Scientists have said climate change is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.

Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rains put a third of Pakistan under water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.