Pakistan floods: Authorities struggle to contain country’s largest lake from overflowing

Authorities in Pakistan are struggling to contain the country’s largest freshwater lake from overflowing amid unprecedented flooding, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Officials in Sindh province have made four cuts into the embankment of Lake Manchar since Sunday to allow excess water to escape.

However, Sindh Special Irrigation Secretary Jamal Mangan said the water level in the lake was still rising.

At 6 am on Tuesday, the water level in Lake Manchar was recorded at a 123.25-foot reduced level, he said. A level of 124 feet is considered dangerous, according to Dawn.

Sardar Sikandar Rahopoto, a member of the National Assembly from Sehwan, told the newspaper that around 1,50,000 persons were affected due to breaches on Lake Manchar’s embankment.

Flash floods and landslides in Pakistan after months of heavy rains have displaced nearly 3.3 crore people in the country, which has a population of 23 crore.

The country has received 190% more rain than its 30-year average between June and August. The Sindh province in southeast Pakistan, which grows around 25% of the country’s total agricultural produce, is the worst hit after getting 466% more rain than the 30-year average.

On Tuesday, the toll from flash floods in the country increased to 1,325 after 11 more people died in the last 24 hours, reported Dawn, citing the country’s National Flood Response Coordination Centre.

It also said that 147 relief camps are operating in the Sindh, South Punjab and Balochistan region, while 284 relief item collection points had been established across the country.

“More than 250 medical camps established so far in which more than 97,000 patients have been treated all across the country and provided 3-5 days’ free medicine,” the centre added.

Last week, the country announced a national emergency because of the floods. Estimates suggest the floods have caused damage worth $10 billion (Rs 79,000 crore) and many people face serious food shortages, Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters.

The United Nations International Children’s Education Funds warned on August 31 that more than three million children in Pakistan need humanitarian assistance. The international body also said that children are at an increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the severe flooding.