By IRNA,
Islamabad : A somber Independence Day observed in Pakistan to express solidarity with the 14 million people affected by unprecedented floods.
Pakistan’s government has announced that no independent day events will be held in the country this year, to show solidarity with millions of flood-affected people in Pakistan.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the occasion said that it is hard to cope up with the natural disaster with the available resources, however, reiterated to meet the situation in the same manner as the nation faced the post-emergence problems.
He also hailed those who offered huge donations and aid. He called upon the international community to extend generous aid for the flood-hit people.
As raging river waters caused more devastation in the country, over 80 percent of the 300,000 people of Jacobabad city were evacuated ahead of expected flooding over the next 24 hours.
Pakistan government has issued a fresh flood warning asking for foreign help to contain the country’s worst humanitarian disaster since its independence.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon would arrive in Islamabad to assess the damage caused by the deadly floods in Pakistan.
The provincial governments have put parts of Punjab and Sindh on alert and called on foreign donors to step up humanitarian efforts.
Punjab officials said flooding had caused power outage affecting thousands of factories in the region.
Islamabad says some 14 million people are facing direct or indirect harm with children among the most vulnerable victims.
The army used boats and helicopters to move stranded villagers in the area to higher ground.
Army says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that Pakistan’s flood survivors could soon start dying due to the lack of clean drinking water.
“Millions of people need food, clean water and medical care — and they need it right now,” said Jacques de Maio, the ICRC’s head of operations for South Asia.
The UN said limited access to safe water and crowded and unsanitary conditions in makeshift camps meant an increased risk of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue fever.
The UN warned that dams in Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through.
The UN has appealed for $460 million to help Pakistan get immediate relief, but officials have said the country will need billions to rebuild after the waters recede.
Iran’s Red Crescent Society has also announced its readiness to dispatch medical and relief teams to Pakistan to help the country cope with devastating floods.
Packages included 142 tons of various kinds of foodstuff, medicines and other necessary items for 70,000 people will be sent to most affected by the recent floods.
The monsoon season this year has caused the worst flooding in Pakistan killing more than 1,600 people.
Floodwaters devastated hundreds of villages in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, destroying homes and threatening more lives.
Floods in Pakistan have also destroyed about 500,000 tonnes of wheat, meaning a smaller surplus for the country this year.
Monsoon season in Pakistan usually lasts about three months, through mid-September. In a typical year, the country gets an average 137 mm (5.4 inches) worth of rainfall during the monsoon season.
Regions downstream in the Indus River valley, where most of Pakistan’s 162 million people live, braced for floods that may damage crops, according to the nation’s biggest agriculture body.
It is feared that the flood seems to have devastating effect on food prices already in double digit in the face of agriculture losses besides adding to fiscal pressures in the form of reconstruction, subsidies, and relief efforts could also mount.
The Indian government has also offered $5 million to Pakistan to cope with the devastating floods.
According to the Indian High Commission, Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and “conveyed deepest sympathies and condolence to the people of Pakistan”.
The negative fall-out effect of the floods on agriculture output, in particular to cotton was estimated at 0.6million bales so far, besides damages to vegetables, sugarcane, as well serious damages to livestock sector.
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had directed all the concerned quarters to make every possible effort to cut down expenditures, avoid holding of Iftar parties during the holy month of Ramazan, and contribute generously towards the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for mitigation of flood affectees’ sufferings.
[Photo by IRNA]