The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday reported that the death toll from various monsoon-related incidents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had climbed to 446, as the province continues to reel from the torrential downpour of last year.
In its latest situation report, the NDMA said the nationwide death toll from this year’s monsoon to-date had reached 748 deaths and 978 injuries. It recorded 41 deaths and 11 injuries in the past 24 hours, including 19 deaths in KP, 11 in Sindh, and 11 in Gilgit-Baltistan. Thus far, the highest number of deaths from this year’s monsoon has been recorded from KP—446—followed by 165 in Punjab, 45 in GB, 40 in Sindh, 22 each in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 8 in Islamabad.
According to the NDMA, the major reason for the deaths has been flash floods, followed by house collapses and drowning.
From June 26 through Aug. 20, said the disaster management body, 3,928 houses had been partially or fully damaged, while 5,006 livestock had perished. It said authorities had thus far conducted 396 rescue operations, distributing 60,325 relief items, and establishing 527 relief and medical camps.
National emergency
Addressing a joint press conference with Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry and NDMA Chairman Lt. Gen. Inam Haider Malik, Information Minister Attaullah Tara said all arms of the state, including the armed forces, were working in unison to tackle the “national emergency.”
He said that since Aug. 17 authorities had rescued at least 25,000 people impacted by the floods, while almost 70% of the electricity infrastructure damaged by the deluge in KP had been restored.
The NDMA chief rescue workers had recorded the bodies of many missing people, while his organization had dispatched two relief convoys to Swabi, Malakand and Buner and was sending a third to Shangla.
During the press conference, the military spokesman said eight units of Infantry and Frontier Constabulary were engaged in search and rescue and flood relief operations in KP, while one was engaged in GB. He said engineer battalions were working on reopening roads and clearing landslides, while medical units had treated over 6,304 people thus far. Army aviation, he said, was overseeing medical casualty evacuation, emergencies, and transportation of food and medicine.