ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s flood crisis moved downstream on Monday, with Sindh province warning that more than 300,000 people could be hit this week as surging river waters sweep south from neighboring Punjab.
Punjab, the country’s most populous province and agricultural heartland, has borne the brunt of the disaster since late August. Officials there say 60 people have died, millions displaced and vast tracts of farmland destroyed after weeks of monsoon rains and controlled water releases from Indian dams, which authorities there carry out to manage reservoir levels during heavy rains.
Floodwaters are now racing down the Indus basin, fed by Punjab’s three eastern rivers — the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej — which have been swollen by weeks of heavy rains and dam releases in India. As the torrents merge into the Indus, Pakistan’s longest river, the surge is expected to hit Sindh this week, threatening towns and farmland along the river’s southern course before it empties into the Arabian Sea.
“The protection of people’s lives and property is the Sindh government’s top priority, and the provincial government stands with the people at all times,” Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said in a statement.
