Pakistan monsoon flooding death toll rises to 1,061
A huge relief operation was under way on Monday and international aid began trickling in as Pakistan struggled to deal with monsoon flooding that has affected more than 33 million people. Officials said 1,061 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off by flood-swollen rivers washing away roads and bridges. The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but it can also bring destruction. Officials said this year's flooding has affected more than 33 million people – one in seven Pakistanis – destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes. Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman called it "the monster monsoon of the decade". This year's floods are comparable to 2010 – the worst on record – when more than 2,000 people died and nearly a fifth of the country was under water. RTHK’s south-Asia correspondent Murali Krishnan said the non-stop rain has also hampered military relief efforts. “This incessant monsoon rainfall has made it very hard to carry out relief operations, especially helicopter sorties, which find it very difficult to land supplies and even potable drinking water to many people who are still stranded in various parts of Pakistan, especially in the southern Sindh province, where the flooding has inundated millions of acres of rich farmland,” Krishnan said. Near Sukkur, a city in Sindh province and home to an ageing colonial-era barrage on the Indus River that is vital to preventing further catastrophe, one farmer lamented the devastation wrought on his rice fields. "Our crop spanned over 5,000 acres on which the best quality rice was sown and is eaten by you and us," Khalil Ahmed, 70, said. "All that is finished,” he said. “Farmers will be at a complete loss because their crops have been completely wiped out in these areas, especially Sindh,” Krishnan added. The Indus River is threatening to burst its banks as a result of torrents of water coursing downstream from tributaries in the north. Many rivers in the area – a picturesque tourist destination – have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings, including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent. The government has declared an emergency and appealed for international help. (Additional reporting by AFP)