PESHAWAR/KARACHI, 7 August 2006 — At least 40 people were killed and many more were missing after a bridge collapsed in northwestern Pakistan as seasonal rains flooded the area, police said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Karachi was limping back to normalcy after being lashed by heavy rains for two consecutive days and fears of outbreak of diseases rose in Sindh Province, which too saw intermittent rains.
In Mardan, ten bodies were retrieved from a flooded river overnight and early yesterday, local police official Iftikhar Khan told AFP. Thirty bodies were pulled out on Saturday in Mardan town, some 50 kilometers northeast of Peshawar. He said troops had joined the rescue work and most of the city, including the hospitals, was inundated.
In remote northern Pakistan two people were killed when rain-washed away Gais Pain village late Saturday, the region’s police chief Sarmad Saeed Khan told AFP.
Dozens of people have died in landslides and floods caused by rain torrents in Pakistan over the past two days.
Dark clouds that burst into light rains hovered over Karachi city which saw occasional rain. The weather was more pleasant and people turned out onto the street to escape the power outage gripping the city.
Major areas of the city that included North Nazimabad, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Malir, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Saddar, Light House etc., had no power for he majority of the day.
The center monitoring flood situation has predicted high floods in the Indus at Chashma and Kalabagh, while the water level at Taunsa were recorded at threatening high floods.
The Swat River and Kabul River are expected to flood in the next three days. The Met Division has predicted further rains for the next two days. People, in various parts of Sindh, with symptoms of gastro-enteritis, typhoid, and cholera are coming to hospitals in increasing numbers since the start of monsoon since last Sunday, according to doctors from different medical centers.
“We were fearing a rapid rise in the incidence of lethal malaria, but that has fortunately, not happened so far”, said a lady doctor at the JPMC. Patients displaying symptoms of gastroenteritis, typhoid, and cholera are coming to hospitals mostly as a result of consuming turbid water. This could also be the likely cause of water-borne hepatitis, jaundice and severe gastro-enteritis cases.
Dr. Seemi Jamali, in charge of the Emergency Department at the JPMC, said, “The risk of an epidemic outbreak of any of the GI (gastro-intestinal) and ENT diseases is always high during and after the monsoons. It is so mainly because most these ailments are food-and water-borne. Food must be properly refrigerated and water must be thoroughly boiled.”
— With input from agancies
