Emergency imposed in four flood-hit KP districts

• Emergency imposed in DI Khan, Chitral, Upper Kohistan.
• CM Sindh says 600,000 cusecs of flood water heading for Guddu Barrage.
• Rains and floods leave 15 more people dead in Sindh.

PESHAWAR/KHAIRPUR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has declared an emergency in flood-hit areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, and Upper Kohistan districts.

The provincial Relief and Rehabilitation Department issued a formal notification on the directives of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, said a handout.

CM Khan said he would soon visit the flood-hit districts to look into the losses caused by flash floods and rehabilitation activities carried out by the administration.

He added that he would announce a package for the rehabilitation of flood-affected infrastructure in those districts.

The chief minister directed the relevant officials to expedite relief and rehabilitation activities and ensure the provision of food items and other stuff of daily use to every flood-affected household, The News reported.

He said that he is monitoring the flood situation, and is in contact with the administration concerned.

The chief minister said the relevant district administrations had been asked for compiling the assessment reports to review the damages caused by floods, adding necessary directives that have been issued to quarters concerned for rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure.

He assured that the KP government would go all-out to provide relief to the affected people and that all available resources would be utilized for that.

Rain, floods ravage Sindh

Meanwhile, as many as 15 more people died in two tragic incidents of roof collapse in Khairpur and Shikarpur in the aftermath of unprecedented rains and floods that have caused colossal damage to life, property, crops and infrastructure across the province.

Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has warned that a heavy flood of 600,000 cusecs was heading for Guddu Barrage alongside impending rains forecast from Tuesday.

In the first instance in Khairpur, 10 flood victims died after the roof of the mosque — they had taken refuge from the floods in the native areas — caved in. The accident also left 100 people injured.

The tragedy struck once again in Shaikarpur where the roof of a house collapsed following torrential rains, killing five members of the same family, including four children.

The family was sleeping at the time of the incident and was buried under the debris. The locals in both cases rushed to rescue the people trapped under the debris and shift the survivors to nearby hospitals.

Expressing profound grief over the life losses due to the collapse of the roofs of houses, CM Sindh told journalists at Sukkur that a flood of 600,000 cusecs of water is heading for Guddu Barrage for which necessary equipment and material have been deployed to strengthen the dams and embankments from Sukkur to Kotri.

He said the situation in the current year is far more challenging than that posed by the historic deluge of 2010 and 2011 and added that unprecedented 500 times more rains have occurred in four spells since mid-July, which has caused misery and damage across 11 worst-hit districts of the province.

Appreciating the federal government for timely assistance, CM Murad said the federal government is "helping us with the efforts of [PPP] Chairman Bilawal Bhutto".

Warning that he would not brook any negligence in rescue and relief efforts, he said strong action will be taken against every official who is found negligent.

He also warned the hoarders from stockpiling commodities of daily use at this time of national tragedy.