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Diseases and snakes plague flood victims

* Death toll rises to 220
* Met office says the worst has passed

KARACHI/QUETTA: Around 1 million people left homeless by massive flooding were facing a potential cholera outbreak and poisonous snakes slithering through the muddy waters, relief officials said on Tuesday.

Floods caused by a cyclone and rain since June 23 had left nearly 220 people dead, a senior relief official said on Monday, but unofficial estimates are considerably higher. An assessment by five foreign aid agencies described a growing number of skin and stomach ailments among the victims in Balochistan, many of whom were living under open sky and drinking polluted water from rivers.

“Some of the villages where we went yesterday had a bad smell. We learned that a lot of livestock was buried under the mud. This is particularly dangerous because of the potential for it to lead to a cholera outbreak,” said Gul Wali Khan of Catholic Relief Services in a statement. “Some of the community members are living under open sky, under the shade of trees. The rains have started and these people are completely exposed with monsoon just around the corner,” said Khan.

The relief agencies planned to provide plastic sheets and bamboo poles for temporary shelter since tents were unsuitable in the extreme summer heat. Oxfam, Save the Children, Concern, and Church World Service were also involved in the assessment.

Balochistan Deputy Relief Commissioner Ali Gul Kurd however said that there were no reports of any disease epidemics despite the large region flooded since Cyclone Yemyin hit a week ago.

“We have sufficient supplies of food, medicines, anti-snake venom kits and water purification tablets,” Kurd said. At least two people have already died of snakebites in the affected region.

Ten civilian medical teams were waiting to fly out as soon as more helicopters were available, but navy and army medical teams had already reached the area, Kurd said.

“The area is very large and around two million people are affected, we require more helicopters,” he added. Kurd said that the number of dead in Balochistan had climbed to at least 120.

In Sindh, waters from the Qabbo Canal broke protective embankments and inundated areas as far away as 26 kilometres (16 miles), said Sindh Relief Commissioner Anwar Haider. Two people were in serious condition after being bitten by poisonous snakes forced out of their normal habitats by the rising waters, he said.

Cases of diarrhea, skin allergies and water-borne diseases were on the rise in the Qambar-Shahdadkot district of the province where the canal’s waters had displaced around 30,000 people, Haider said.

Balochistan Home Secretary Tariq Ayub said that three to seven days of food had been provided to flood-affected people so that in case of more rain no survivors went hungry.

The meteorological department said that more rains forecast to hit the south would not be as bad as expected. “The situation is not that alarming now, the system is weakening after heavy rains in southern Pakistan overnight,” Department Chief Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry said.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met senior relief officials to review the aid effort late on Monday. They ordered roads to be rebuilt on a ‘fast-track basis’ to get relief goods through more easily.

Pakistan has called on the international community to rush aid to the victims while the military continued to airlift relief supplies to isolated communities. Around 500 people have died across the subcontinent - in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan - since the start of the monsoon season in early June. agencies

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