The country’s disaster management office said on Friday that the recent torrential rains in Pakistan had resulted in at least 50 fatalities, 87 injuries, and significant property damage to several residential buildings.
Pre-monsoon rains started in the last week of June and have persisted intermittently ever since, causing floods to the province of Balochistan and disrupting traffic on its roadways. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reports that 34 people have died in Pakistan’s biggest province of Punjab as a result of rain-related disasters, followed by 10 fatalities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, five fatalities in Balochistan, and one in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
According to the NDMA, up to 62 dwellings throughout the nation may have suffered partial or total damage, and 15 animals may have perished. This week’s record rainfall in Lahore caused the city to flood. In contrast to the previous day, the rain on Thursday was essentially insignificant.
On Thursday, the majority of the 16 monitoring sites operated by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) only saw single-digit rainfall. Massive downpours fell on Balochistan’s several districts, and the provincial disaster management agency issued a high alert to deal with the downpours and flash floods. As a result, parts of the roads connecting the province to Sindh and Punjab were closed to traffic.
PDMA Director General Jahanzeb Khan said on Thursday that “we have issued directives to all deputy commissioners about the possible damages due to flash floods in seasonal streams and rivers and have sent necessary relief goods to immediately provide relief.” The forecast from the Meteorological Department stated that “widespread heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls” would occur at various locations over the upper catchments of the rivers Sutlej, Ravi, and Chenab as well as up to a certain extent over Jhelum.
The Meteorological Department’s Shahid Abbas said that while Friday will continue to be rainy, it would not be as dangerous as the previous 48 hours. However, Saturday and Sunday may have periods similar to those on Wednesday, which will cause flooding in urban areas.
His forecast indicated that Lahore would see a recurrence of Wednesday’s flooding after receiving more than 290 mm of rain in only 10 hours. In Pakistan, the monsoon season lasts from July through September. The southern province of Sindh and the southwest area of Balochistan were the hardest affected by the devastating floods that engulfed a third of Pakistan last year.
More than 1,200 people were killed by the terrible floods, and millions more were left without food and shelter.
