KARACHI: The Sindh government has issued orders for the immediate evacuation of the city of Warah and surrounding villages in Sindh’s Qambar-Shahdadkot district as flood waters converge on the administrative unit of around 200,000 people.

A notification issued form the office of the deputy commissioner of Qamber Shahdadkot stated that water had surrounded the city from all sides.

The notification urged people to leave the area imediately with their belongings, including livestock.

However, the evacuation orders gave residents only 24 hours to relocate to a safe place at a time when the administrative unit has been almost cut off from the rest of the province due to flooded roads.

Earlier, flood water had entered Dadu after which locals started barricading their houses with sacks to protect them from the flood water.

Surrounding areas of Juhi and Khairpur Nathan Shah have also been submerged while hundreds of villages in Dadu, Badin, Kundhkot and Thatta are still under water.

The affectees in Sindh, with a large number living in makeshift dwellings of tents pitched on higher ground or along main highways.

Food, clothing and shelter is not the only challenge facing those displaced by the floods.

Lack of drinking water has resulted in various outbreaks, including high incidence of cholera and gastroentritis, with experts saying that it is turning into an epidemic with 1,428 cases reported in last 24 hours across the province.

Thatta reported 490 cases, the most in the last 24 hours. Another 141 cases were reported from Tando Muhammad Khan, 127 in Badin and 112 in Sajawal.

Cases were reported from across Sindh, including Mirpur Khas (88), Thar (79), Larkana (55), Hyderabad (53), Jamshoro (47), Tando Allahyar (39), Sukkur (36), Jacobabad (26), Khairpur (25), Shikarpur (15), Kashmore (10) and Shaheed Benazirabad also 10 cases.

PDMA daily update

Another 39 people lost their lives in flood-related incidents in the last 24 hours, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said in its daily update. This takes the death toll from rain and floods to 470 since early June. z

Jamshoro and Sukkur had the highest number of casualties, reporting 10 deaths each.

Eight people died in Larkana, another six in flooed Dadu, while one death each was reported from Ghotki, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot.

According to PDMA figures, those killed so far including 168 men, 88 women and 205 children. Another 8,314 people have been injured in various accidents since the first week of June.