Death toll from Pakistan floods reaches 1,325

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - The death toll from ravaging floods in Pakistan reached 1,325, with 11 more fatalities reported over the past 24 hours, the country's national disaster agency said on Monday.

All fresh casualties were reported from the southern province of Sindh, where a fresh spell of floods has inundated more land in the central districts over the past 48 hours, bringing the overall tally in the province to 522 since mid-June.

Since June 14, a total of 289 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by 260 fatalities in Balochistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Some 189 people have died in the northeastern Punjab province, the authority said.

A total of 12,703 people have been injured across the country in rain and flood-related incidents since June 14.

Thousands more were evacuated from various parts of the Jamshoro and Dadu districts of Sindh through boats by the army, and navy troops, and volunteers from NGO relief groups.

Footage on local broadcasters showed houses, mosques, schools, and other buildings inundated by muddy floodwaters, also lapping against the roofs of low-lying buildings.

Railway service between various flood-hit areas and the rest of country was halted for another 10 days as swirling floods inundated several portions of the railway tracks.

The main Indus Highway also remained underwater at various points, with hundreds of vehicles queued up awaiting the road reopening.

Tens of thousands are still lying stranded in dozens of flood-battered areas as armed forces planes continue to airlift marooned citizens in the Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan provinces.

- Disease outbreak

Hundreds of thousands of panicked flood victims are grappling with massive outbreaks of various waterborne, eye, and skin diseases, triggering fears of more casualties as the country's already weak healthcare system is struggling to cope with the deteriorating conditions in all four provinces.

Crammed in tents and schools, thousands of already sick and compromised victims are particularly vulnerable to diarrhea, gastrointestinal, dengue, malaria, and other diseases due to polluted water and unhygienic conditions.

Floods caused by unprecedented rains have inundated a third of the country, prompting the government to issue an international appeal.

Pakistan has already received 12 planes from Türkiye with tents, rations, medicine, kitchen items, baby food, and other relief supplies.

Türkiye, which sent a ministerial delegation to Islamabad on Friday to express its solidarity with Pakistan, also delivered two trains full of relief supplies to the flood-ravaged country. The country will send another train from Istanbul in the coming days.

Constant rains and raging floods have already destroyed a large chunk of the country's infrastructure and agricultural land, including hundreds of thousands of houses, roads, and bridges, as well as washing away over a million animals.

Almost 45% of the country's cropland has already been inundated by the floods, posing a serious threat to food security and adding further to already skyrocketing inflation.