Rescue teams in southern Pakistan were scrambling on Friday to evacuate millions of people from remote villages, Pakistani officials said, as the region anxiously awaited the arrival of rainwater from the north of the country.
Provincial government spokesman Murtaza Wahab said rescue efforts in Sindh province, which was the worst affected province in a series of floods since mid-June, were supported by helicopters and military boats.
“It’s a race against time,” said Wahab, who was supervising the evacuation.
The Pakistani portion of the Indus River, which flows from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea in the south, has again overflowed from its banks after heavy rains hit the mountains last week.
The disaster management agency said the water flow rate downstream was about 20,000 cubic meters per second and would soon reach major cities in Sindh.
The death toll from the floods has already reached 1,208, and the number is expected to rise, the agency said in an update on Thursday.
“We are trying to reach people who are still in the middle of the water without food or shelter,” said a rescue worker from Dadu city in Sindh province.
On Thursday, UN agencies warned that millions of children and pregnant women are at great risk and need urgent humanitarian assistance.
In the north of the country, where several towns remain under water a week after the latest rains stopped, thousands are still without food or shelter.
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