KARACHI - Sindh Minister for Trade, Industries and Cooperatives Jam Ikramullah Dharijo said Monday that the provincial government was facing enormous challenges due to heavy rains and flash floods.
The minister in a statement issued here said that Sindh government was engaged in rescue and relief of disaster stricken people in the first phase while attention would be paid in the second phase to the rehabilitation of the flood victims.
Unprecedented heavy rains in Sindh affected almost all the districts of Sindh but some of them have been affected severely, he said adding that the provincial government was helping the flood victims according to its resources and food, mosquito nets and medicines were being provided to them.
He said that PPP
Sindh government on the directives of its chairman was engaged in relief work day and night. The minister expressed gratitude to the Islamic countries and the world for helping the flood victims and also admired the passion of people of Pakistan for helping flood victims. Dharijo said that Pakistanis are a courageous nation and nation could deal with the challenge only through national unity.
RIVER INDUS STILL RUNS FURIOUS AT KOTRI
The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has said that the river Indus continues to flow in “High Flood” at Kotri with 650,000 cusecs while all other main rivers of Indus River System (Jhelum, Chenab. Ravi and Sutlej) are flowing in “Normal”.
According to daily FFC report on Monday, Tarbela Reservoir has already attained maximum conservation level of 1550.00 feet since August 28, 2022. At present, water level in Mangla Dam is 1192.30 feet against its MCL: 1242 feet (47.44 % storage still left). Chashma Reservoir is also being maintained at 648.60 feet (against MCL: 649.00 feet) since 2nd September 2022. Present combined live storage of Tarbela, Chashma & Mangla Reservoirs is 9.951 MAF (i.e. 73.93 % of 13.461 MAF). Trough of Westerly wave earlier over Northeastern Afghanistan today lies over Northern parts of Pakistan while weak seasonal low continues to prevail over Northwestern Balochistan. At present,weak moist currents from Bay of Bengal are penetrating into upper parts of Pakistan upto 4000 feet.
Flood Forecasting Division Lahore has predicated scattered thunderstorm/rain of moderate intensity over Islamabad, Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha & Gujranwala Divisions), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu & D.I. Khan Divisions) and Southeastern Sindh including upper catchments of all Major Rivers of Indus River System during the next 24 hours. Isolated thunderstorm/rain of light to moderate intensity may also occur over Lahore, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, D.G. Khan & Bahawalpur Divisions of Punjab and Northeastern Balochistan during the said period. Monsoon floods devastate commercial crops, cause loss of $1.7 bln in Sindh
A recent by the International Centre for Integrated Mountains Development (ICIMOD) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) has revealed that the recent massive torrential rains had inundated the cropland of Southeastern province of Sindh that devastated commercial crops on large scale and incurred a combined loss of $1.7 billion.
The study titled “The 2022 Pakistan floods: Assessment of crop losses in Sindh Province using satellite data” by the ICIMOD and PARC used satellite imagery to assess potential crop production losses for major crops at the sub district-level to support the government’s rehabilitation and compensation planning processes in Sindh Province.
The Sindh province at the national level comprised of 42% of the rice, 23% of the cotton, and 31% of the sugarcane production. “The 2022 Pakistan floods caused unprecedented damage to agriculture crops, livestock, and infrastructure, including storage facilities with millions of tonnes of grain, posing the risk of an unprecedented food security crisis in the country. The floods struck before the harvesting stage of key crops, including cotton, rice, and sugarcane.”
The study showed that as per the flood extent mapping using Sentinel-1 satellite images acquired during August 22-28, flood waters directly inundated about 2.5 million hectares of land (over 18% of Sindh’s total area), which resulted in obstructed access and mobility in around three-fourths of the province area. The most affected areas included northwestern districts of Jacobabad, Larkana, Shikarpur, and Kashmore. The satellite data of September 3 revealed that the expansion of flood water was continuing through the water coming from the western mountain region of Balochistan and was increasing river discharge at Guddu barrage, resulting in additional flooding in the Indus River
