Pakistan flood waters to remain for weeks

[Turborama]

Source: CBC

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 | 9:30 AM ET

- Pakistan's floodwaters are not expected to recede until the end of August, the country's top meterologist said Wednesday. Though the week's forecast does not include heavy rain, existing river torrents were still heading to major cities such as Hyderabad and Sukkur in the south and could yet cause more floods, Arif Mahmood said.

Three weeks of flooding have left more than 20 million people either homeless or otherwise affected. The scale of the disaster has badly strained the government, the police and army, which are handling much of the relief effort.

At a feeding centre in the city of Jampur, in central Pakistan, 800 people who fled their homes — mostly women and children — are living in about 100 tents. Many of the men are not there because they felt they had no choice but to stay with their sinking and flooding homes elsewhere, military officials told the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault.

Army crews there on Wednesday delivered water and evaporated milk, basic supplies the military realizes will not be enough to feed everyone, Arsenault reported. "What some of the people say in the camp is that the water has been chasing them," Arsenault said. "They go from one place to another, and then the high water comes to them. In some horrible cases, people who have sought high land and climbed trees thinking that would be safer only to find that the snakes have done precisely the same thing."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/18/pakistan-flooding-relief-effort.html

[polly7]

1. Ack!

I thought I hit recommend but may have made a mistake. Sorry! Pakistan's catastrophe hasn't made nearly the news other recent events have, I really hope they start getting the massive amounts of aid they need. The UN's plea has gathered millions more in aid, for some reason they aren't receiving much of it yet. Get it to them .... send resources from all over the world. As of a few days ago we hadn't even sent our DART team yet. Why do they wait?

[OhioChick]

2. Agreed and got your Rec.

:)

[polly7]

3. Thank you :) nt.

[Murray_R]

4. Security situation in Pakistan isn't the best.

"As of a few days ago we hadn't even sent our DART team yet. Why do they wait?"

Maybe they're concerned that a high profile U.S. response will draw attacks, or require so many security resources that they pose a net drain on the effort (Pakistanis guarding Americans instead of helping Paistanis).

Haiti wasn't full of people that would rather kill an American than accept his help. That by no means describes most Pakistanis, but perhaps enough to make a difference in this case.

[polly7]

5. Sorry, was talking about DART from Canada.

We already have the Red Cross and paramedics working there. It's either the Gov't or UN holding them up. I can't see the UN doing it, so am at a loss why they weren't sent immediately.

Or ..... maybe they are there now and I just can't find news of it yet.

[Turborama]

7. One week later... Pakistan to make formal request for DART

Richard J. Brennan
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA—Pakistan will make a formal request as early as Thursday for Canada’s crack Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to be deployed to the flood-stricken country.

Muhammad Saleem, Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner in Ottawa, said the two countries have been negotiating informally on matters such as where the team would be best deployed given the enormity of the disaster. “We are in communications at least twice a day with DFAIT (the department of foreign affairs and international trade) on the matter of DART and we are focusing towards announcing the date for the departure of DART,” Saleem told the Star Wednesday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s office said DART is on standby as part of the wider Canadian response to the floods and confirmed Wednesday there had still been no formal request from Pakistan for the team’s deployment. DART was last deployed to Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake and remained for several weeks.

“Canadian officials are in daily contact with the government of Pakistan in Ottawa and Islamabad to review how best Canada can continue to contribute to the evolving international relief efforts,” a Cannon spokesperson said.

Full article: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/852515--pakistan-to-make-formal-request-for-dart

[polly7]

10. Thank you vm Turborama, I'm glad to read of this.

One of Dart's key functions is to provide clean, potable water, one of Pakistan's greatest needs .... I don't know why the Pakistani gov't waited to formally ask but I'm sure they had their reasons. Good to see our DART's going in, I really admire those people.

[sabrina 1]

8. Actually there are a lot of people in Haiti who have good

reason to hate this country. And when George Bush went there, brought by Bill Clinton, they let him know that. Bush was responsible for the ousting of their president Aristedes, a coup that cost Haitians 5,000 lives. And Bush's father was responsible for interfering in Haiti also, not to mention our horrific history of supporting their worst and most violent leaders while helping to keep the country from independence going all the way back to its inception.

I don't think there are fears that Americans bringing aid will be attacked. I posted an article from the Army's official site yesterday which reported that the U.S. military is working together, as this OP reports, with the Pakistani military and that they have no security concerns at all as the Pakistani Military (which does have some ties to the Taleban) has been excellent on the issue of security.

Most Pakistanis are like people anywhere else. Although when we kill their civilians with drones, we aren't exactly endearing ourselves to them. I think I'd be a little disturbed by a foreign army dropping bombs on my family.

Look what we did after one attack on this country. We invaded two countries, killed over a million human beings, tortured and maimed untold numbers of others and unleashed propaganda of hate against Muslims in general that will probably take decades to eradicate.

Sometimes I think people from other countries are far more forgiving than this country is, and with far more reason not to be.

[Turborama]

6. CS Monitor: Pakistan floods - Residents Brace for a Second Wave of Problems

People struggle to get relief food distributed by volunteers
at outside a camp for flood-affected people in Hyderabad,
Pakistan on Wednesday. Pakistan floods have begun to recede but
residents brace for a second wave of heavy rains.



Pakistan floods recede but experts warn of a second wave of heavy rains that could spell disaster for those who already remain cut-off from aid now that many bridges have been washed away.


By Issam Ahmed, Correspondent / August 18, 2010

Khwazakhela, Pakistan

As Khushal Khan emerged from a half-hour long helicopter ride to the safety of the Pakistani Khwazakhela airbase, he tuned to shake hands with the American pilot who had brought him across the muddy mountain terrain that would have taken days to cover on foot.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and began the second leg of his journey to Swat's main town of Mingora to fetch food for his family, urging authorities to rebuild the bridge that connects his home village of Matilan to the rest of the region.

“If the roads aren’t reopened soon, we will all starve to death,” he says.

Flood waters that killed hundreds of residents swept away some 260 bridges in the Swat Valley have begun to recede, and the rain has eased for now. But officials here warn of a catastrophic second wave of problems for the thousands of residents that remain cut-off from aid. If more bridges aren't repaired quickly, say locals and experts, aid could fail to reach the thousands of residents that remain cut-off even as meteorologists predict more heavy rains in the south in the coming weeks.

The village of Matiltan is one of many communities that is hard to access after a bridge connecting it to the main area of Swat, along with some 30 miles of road, gave way during the floods. Khan and other rescued residents from the area say that, so far, 70 bags of food-aid have been dropped in by the United Nations World Food Program: not nearly enough to feed the village’s 15,000 residents.

Full article with embedded links: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0818/Pakistan-floods-residents-brace-for-a-second-wave-of-problems

[sabrina 1]

9. That should be an OP on its own ...

260 bridges swept away in the Swat Valley alone. I remember the fighting there when the U.S. went in to drive out the Taleban. Who could have imagined this would happen back then.

Too late to rec ... but :kick: