Islamabad, Sep 6: Pakistani authorities on Tuesday struggled to stop the country’s largest freshwater lake from overflowing amid unprecedented floods as their efforts to lower its water levels failed, displacing around 100,000 people in the adjacent areas.
The Manchar Lake in Sindh province is dangerously full after record monsoons that inundated a third of Pakistan and killed over 1,300 people since mid-June.
On Sunday, officials attempted to release water from the lake. Despite their efforts, water levels in the lake remained stubbornly high on Monday. On Tuesday they again attempted to lower water levels.
Four breaches of the lake’s banks so far – to protect areas downstream – have displaced over 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, the death toll from floods rose to 1,325 on Tuesday after another 11 people died across the country.
The majority of 522 people died in Sindh, followed by 289 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 260 in Balochistan, 189 in Punjab, 42 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 22 in Gilgit-Baltistan and one in Islamabad, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
At least 12,703 people have been injured in floods which also damaged 5,735 km of roads.
Authorities were working to evacuate people and provide relief to the flood victims. At least 363 army helicopters had been flown to various areas as part of relief efforts.
“In the last 24 hours, 25 sorties have flown and evacuated 131 stranded individuals and delivered 32 tons of relief items to flood affectees,” the Army said, adding so far 3,716 stranded Individuals had been evacuated through these helicopter sorties. (PTI)
