Recent floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in southern Pakistan have killed nearly 300 people and affected 6 million more, according to the latest figures released by the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on September 17.
The floods caused damage to an area of 7.987 million acres and swept away standing crops in the whole affected areas, said NDMA.
According to NDMA, floods have affected all the 23 districts of Sindh province and completely damaged a total of 539,899 houses while another 848,412 houses have suffered partial damage.
More than 80,000 livestock have been washed away by flood waters in Sindh while cotton, banana, dates, chili and sugarcane on 2,800,000 acres of land have been destroyed or affected. About 31,960 villages have been badly affected by the floods.
The first spell of rain that started on August 11 mainly affected 7 districts of Sindh province while an ongoing second spell has hit the entire province including Karachi.
An estimated 415,195 people are presently living in some 2,656 makeshift relief camps including schools and public buildings across Sindh, said NDMA.
Some 5.74 million people in different districts of the province have been affected by the floods and thousands of them are camped out on higher ground or on roadsides.
Pakistan Army has been busy in rescue and relief operation and so far rescued more than 100,000 marooned people along with their cattle from various water inundated areas.
Pakistan Navy teams are also busy in rescue work in the flood affected areas and evacuated 11,000 victims.
The Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, who had canceled his visit to the United States due to the floods, started visit to the flood-hit Sindh province. Officials briefed him about the losses.
