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About 12 million people have now been
affected by Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years, disaster officials
have said, raising previous estimates by three times.
Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the National Disaster Management
Authority, said that the figure only applied to the northwestern
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central Punjab provinces, with figures from
the southern Sindh province not yet available.
Previous estimates had said that four million Pakistanis have been
affected, a reflection of the rapidly growing scale of the disaster.
The new figures come as Pakistan braces for yet more rains in areas
already badly hit by torrential monsoon downpours that have caused
devastation, washing away villages and destroying swathes of
agricultural land.
"We're forecasting widespread rains in the country, especially in
flood-affected areas," Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of
Pakistan's meteorological department, said.
More than 1,600 people been killed by the floods, which started last
week when torrential monsoon downpours hit the north-west of the
country.
Swollen rivers are carrying a huge volume of water south, raising
fears that further destruction lies ahead.
Sindh fears
In Sindh province, half a million people have been evacuated in
anticipation of the arrival of the torrent of floodwater.
"We are seeing a number of preparations being made across Sindh
province," Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reported from the southern
coastal city Karachi.
"So far 500,000 people have been evacuated. Nearly 250,000 homes
have been destroyed across the provinces bordering Sindh.
"The floods are coming further south. Nobody knows whether the
floodwaters will reach Karachi, but severe flood warnings have been
issued."
The poor weather forecasts have grounded helicopters flying rescue
missions to affected areas.
US military personnel were forced to abandon flights to stranded
communities in the upper reaches of the hard-hit Swat Valley, as
storm began to dump more rain on the stricken region, where many
thousands are living in tents or crammed into public buildings.
About 85 US military personnel are taking part in the relief
activities, along with six helicopters that have been flown over
from Afghanistan, where some 100,000 American troops are based
battling the Taliban.
Meanwhile 30,000 Pakistani soldiers are rebuilding bridges,
delivering food and setting up relief camps in the northwest, which
is the main battleground in the fight against al-Qaeda and the
Taliban.
Foreign countries and the United Nations have pledged millions of
dollars to help reconstruction efforts.
Response criticised
Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, appealed for
international aid during a televised address to the nation after
visiting flooded areas.
"Pakistan has been hit by worst floods of its history," he said. "At
this time of crisis I would like to appeal to the international
community to support Pakistan to help alleviate the suffering of the
flood affected people."
Criticism of Pakistan's government has intensified in recent days,
with particular ire directed at Asif Ali Zardari, the president, who
went ahead with state visits to Europe at the height of the
disaster.
Zardari's absence has provoked angry reaction from many of those
affected, and the row has intensified debate over his leadership of
the country, where the security situation has been deteriorating and
corruption is rampant.
""Our president prefers to go abroad rather than supervising the
whole relief operation in such a crisis," Ghulam Rasool, a resident
of the town of Sukkur, said.
"They don't care about us. They have their own agendas and
interests."
Aid organisations are struggling to cope with scale of the disaster.
Food supplies are running low in some areas and health experts warn
that the conditions are ripe for the spread of disease.
Many ordinary Pakistanis have simply been left to fend for
themselves in the aftermath of the flooding.
"We don't have anything, no one has given us even a single penny,"
Khair Mohammad, a cattle-breeder who has been displaced by the
disaster, said.
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