Pakistan renews flood rescue bid

پاکستان کی تاریخ میں بدترین سیلاب، پچیس لاکھ افراد متاثر، غیر معمولی صورتحال

Pakistani rescue teams are aiming to reach thousands of people cut off by the country's most devastating floods in 80 years.

پاکستان کے بدترین سیلاب میں اب تک ایک ہزار سے زیادہ افراد ہلاک ہو چکے ہیں، پختون خواہ میں اب بھی ستائیس ہزار تک رسائی نہیں، لاکھوں افراد امداد کے منتظر اور متاثرہ علاقوں میں بیماریوں کا خطرہ بڑھ گیا ہے۔

Aid agencies said entire villages had been washed away as the region faced its worst flooding for 80 years.

Unicef said three million people had been affected and 1,400 had been killed. Other estimates put the death toll between 800 and 1,500.

Experts warn that action is needed to stop the spread of waterborne diseases.

Dr Ahmed Farah Shadoul, the World Health Organization's acting head in Pakistan, told the BBC that the environment was conducive to disease outbreaks.

"Specifically diarrhoeal diseases, skin problems, eye problems, malaria and fevers, and measles, especially in children. That's why it's very essential to take all the appropriate measures to address those issues," he said.

The UN children's agency Unicef said more than a million children needed emergency aid.

Dr Shadoul said he had received reports of people being bitten by snakes, and said the WHO had provided antivenom in some regions.

Food is scarce in the area and water supplies have been contaminated by the floods.

Unicef says it has been working with the Pakistani authorities to repair wells and provide chlorine tablets so that water can be treated before it is drunk.

Local official Mian Iftikhar Hussain said rescue teams were trying to reach 27,000 stranded people, including 1,500 tourists in the Swat Valley, the scene of a major military offensive against the Taliban last year.

"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," he added.

The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.

The army says the initial rescue operation may be over in 10 days, but rebuilding the damaged areas could take more than six months.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the biggest challenge for the emergency services is access, as so many areas had their transport and communication links destroyed and are now isolated.

Although the rain has stopped, huge swathes of north-west Pakistan remain submerged.

Some survivors have complained that the government has responded slowly; several hundred people protested in the city of Peshawar, where homeless survivors have crammed into temporary shelters.

"The government is not helping us," said 53-year-old labourer Ejaz Khan, whose house on the city's outskirts was swept away by the floods.

In Nowsheara district another flood victim, Faisal Islam, told the Associated Press: "We need tents. Just look around. This is the only shirt I have. Everything else is buried."

Islamist groups, some accused of having links to the Taliban, have been providing aid to many of the victims.

Governments around the world have pledged millions of dollars in aid.