ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Pakistan received emergency supplies from the United States on Saturday as devastating floods battered Punjab, with three major rivers flowing from India surging at multiple points and forecasters warning of fresh torrential rains until Sept. 9.
Home to half of Pakistan’s 240 million people and much of its wheat and rice production, Punjab has been hit hardest by this year’s monsoon as nearly 50 people have died in the current Ravi-Sutlej-Chenab flood spell that started late last month, bringing the seasonal death toll in the province to 231 since June.
Nationwide, the National Disaster Management Authority said 905 people have been killed in rain and flood-related incidents since the monsoon began on June 26.
The government has primarily focused on evacuating people from settlements along the three rivers and breached protective embankments to save major cities, with the army doing rescue and relief work in most areas of the province. However, the Punjab administration announced a satellite-aided survey a day earlier to quantify flood losses before launching a compensation and rehabilitation program for families whose homes and farmland have been destroyed.
“US military aircraft delivered essential supplies at the request of the Pakistan military in response to the devastating floods,” the American embassy in Islamabad said in a social media post, adding that its Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker extended condolences to the people of Pakistan, whose lives have been uprooted by the widespread, catastrophic flooding.
