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Shikarpur (Pakistan) (AFP) – In the small village of Panjal Sheikh in southern Pakistan, unprecedented torrential rains destroyed houses one by one and flooded farmland, plunging its inhabitants into despair.
After two weeks of incessant rain, only damaged walls and piles of objects remain floating in puddles of brown water and gray mud.
The inhabitants of Panjal Sheikh, a town located less than 25 kilometers from the banks of the Indus River, which crosses the country from north to south, are suffering the consequences of the monsoon rains that affected a third of Pakistan.
The floods, the worst in the last 30 years, according to the authorities, have affected tens of millions of Pakistanis since June, leaving more than 1,000 dead and destroying almost a million homes.
“When it started to rain, everything started to be destroyed everywhere,” Mukhtiar Ahmed, a resident of the city, told AFP on Sunday.
“When we were trying to save children from a house that was collapsing, another house fell and then another,” he said. “The whole town was razed to the ground.”
Pakistan frequently experiences heavy rains during the monsoon season, which usually runs from June to September.
The rains, often destructive, are also essential for the irrigation of crops and the reconstitution of water resources.
But this time the scale of the damage is unprecedented in the last 30 years, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.
Pakistani authorities blame the rains on climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events around the world.
“A town devastated”
The power of the bad weather surprised the head of Panjal Sheikh village, Ghulam Rasool, 80 years old.
“We heard a huge noise all of a sudden and we didn’t immediately understand what was happening,” said the elderly man who thought his son’s house had collapsed and all four of its occupants were dead. It was actually the sound of torrents of water falling.
I ran out with my daughter in my arms, when the walls collapsed on my way out
And while the family tried in vain to prevent the water from invading their land, Rasool’s daughter gave birth.
“I was in pain, but I was afraid to talk about it. I finally told my mother,” said Naheed Sheikh, 30.
In pouring rain, her family finally managed to get her to a dilapidated hospital where she gave birth by caesarean section.
But the woman’s ordeal did not end when she returned home. “She was half asleep in my room… when we felt the room wobble,” she told AFP. “I ran out with my daughter in my arms, when the walls collapsed on my way out,” she added.
After 13 days of rain, Ghulam Rasool walks through what remains of the village, tripping over piles of straw, family belongings and the piles of firewood with which he made a living.
Now he wants to tear down the fragile walls that are still standing so they don’t fall on people.
“Everything is destroyed. We can’t even cook,” she said. “We are suffering a lot and we hope that someone will help us.”
Many survivors of floods like the one Panjal Sheikh suffered have flocked to the nearby town of Sukkur in the hope of receiving help.
Some took shelter in plastic tents along a highway, where crowds swarm as army trucks pass by to distribute sacks of wheat and tents.
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