ISLAMABAD: River Indus at Kotri Barrage was in high flood with an in-flow of more than 600,000 cusecs of flood water, posing a serious threat to the surrounding regions, Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said.

“Rain forecasts have predicted monsoon stretching into September in Sindh,” she said in a statement. She feared that Sindh would also receive rainfall which could prove detrimental to the relief and rescue operations in the area.

Discussing the looming health crisis, Sherry said that floods have brought the menace of water-borne diseases such as dengue and cholera. Karachi is seeing an outbreak of dengue as hundreds and thousands of patients are reporting daily at government and private hospitals.

The dengue cases this year are 50 per cent higher than last year, with 584,246 people in camps throughout the country. “Health crisis could wreak havoc if it will go unchecked.”

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Sunday that clearing floodwaters might take up to three to six months. Manchar Lake has been overflowing since early September, causing inundation of several hundred villages and more than 100,000 people, located in the path of the flood, are affected and have been asked to evacuate.

“We are expediting our efforts to provide medicines and medics to the 81 calamity-hit flood affected districts of the country. However, these are still very initial estimates as new data is coming up on the ground,” Sherry said.

Food insecurity was another impending crisis created due to floods.

The minister stated: “Around 70 per cent of the onion crop along with rice and maize have been completely destroyed in the country. Nearly two million acres of crops and orchards have been hit, according to the United Nations.”

Urgent relief in the form of food, tents and medicines was being provided by NDMA and PDMAs, however, more resources were needed.

The countrywide death toll has soared to 1,422. Sindh saw the highest number of deaths, 594 in total, and has a huge number of people confined in camps.

Highlighting the economic losses suffered due to the floods, the federal minister said that Pakistan has incurred a total agricultural loss, and damage to infrastructure including 6,579km of roads, 246 bridges and railway infrastructure.

As many as 485, 922 houses have been completely damaged in Sindh; the highest number of houses damaged in any province. Estimates would all have to be revised when the actual scale of the damage was clear.

“We are faced with a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.”

The federal minister appreciated UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s visit to Pakistan and made an unequivocal plea for humanitarian assistance to the country.

“It is unfortunate that all over social media and other public platforms the opposition is actively exhorting all international supporters to not give aid or support via anyone but their own PTI sources.”

Such active promotion of public disunity in Pakistan’s worse hour of need and crisis was a shocking expose of the thinking behind the divisive politics being promoted.

“We, meanwhile, welcome all support and assistance to the destitute and homeless victims of this great flood, irrespective of cast, colour or political creed. Every Pakistani in need has a right to assistance. We would never stand in the way of that, for burnishing our own political brand.”