Water will not return to normal levels for three months after severe flooding in Pakistan

MADRID, 11 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The chief minister of the Pakistani province of Sindh, Murad Ali Shah, has warned that it will take between three and six months to drain all the water from the serious floods that have affected the area in recent weeks and that have cost life to almost 1,400 people throughout the country.

"There are areas with 8 to 10 feet of water," 2.5 to 3 meters, Shah said. "Even where the water level is lowering, people still cannot return," he lamented, according to the Pakistani newspaper 'Dawn'.

Shah explained that there are some 35 million displaced people and "millions of hectares of fertile land" are now flooded. This has caused losses of 3,500 million rupees (about 15.3 million euros) for agriculture and 50,000 million rupees (218 million euros) for livestock.

In addition, Shah has recalled that this year they have fallen between 10 and 11 times the usual amount of rain. "The whole world has come together to combat climate change," said Shah, who has accompanied the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, on his visit, and to whom he has conveyed the urgent need for tents and medicines.

Meanwhile, the Dadu area in Sindh is now suffering from a rising water level that has left 150 villages submerged and is already threatening Dadu city itself.

The forecast calls for heavy rain and windy storms in Kashmir, Khiber Pakhtunjua, Islamabad, Punjab, southeastern Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Sindh has been the province hardest hit by the monsoon rains, with 578 of the dead and 8,321 of the total 12,728 injured recorded between June 14 and September 9, according to the latest official balance.