QUETTA: The death toll caused by monsoon in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province has reached 197 since the beginning of the season in mid-June, said an official document circulated on Monday, as several districts in the region were inundated after yet another spell of rains in recent days.
The country’s metrological department issued an alert last week, warning of a rain system which it said was likely to trigger floods in different areas of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
The recent spell of monsoon has lashed Balochistan’s Musakhail, Dera Bugti and Kholu districts where floods have hit urban and rural settlements, killing nine people and injuring many more.
“The heavy downpours at the Koh-e-Sulaiman mountain range on Sunday killed eight people in Musakhail while floods swept away a man in Qilla Abdullah,” the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said in its latest flood assessment report.
The document added the death toll caused by rains in the province had reached 197.
Farrah Azeem, a spokesperson for the Balochistan administration, said Musakhail district was the worst affected area in the province where dozens of mud houses had collapsed in the latest flash flood.
“The flood is still passing through many villages in Tehsil Durook and Union Council Rana Sham where the district administration and rescue teams are trying to evacuate people and transport them to safer places,” Azeem told Arab News.
She said the chief minister of the province, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, had directed deputy commissioners in Balochistan to ensure timely relief and rescue operations in flood-hit areas.
“The recent spell of monsoon will last until August 18 in Balochistan,” she said, adding: “The provincial government is working in flood-affected areas to distribute relief goods among people.”
Officials also informed Arab News that Balochistan had to suspend train service to other provinces due to floods.
“The Quetta-Peshawar and Quetta-Karachi trains departed the station earlier today, but we had to stop them in Sibi due to the flood situation,” the railway controller in Quetta, Muhammad Kashif, said.
He added the railway authorities were now transporting passengers to Jacobabad in Sindh by using a bus service from where they would be asked to board the trains.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), monsoon rains have also created havoc in other parts of the country in which 618 people have lost their lives since mid-June.
The NDMA said in a statement on Sunday it had dispatched more relief items to Balochistan to help its residents.