Rains restarted in Quetta and its suburbs on Sunday with thunderstorms, as the city struggled to face the monsoon onslaught.
The spell of monsoon rain is not over yet as the Met Office has forecasted rain on Sunday (today). It said that the monsoon currents might get strengthened under the influence of the current weather system.**
“Heavy falls may generate urban flooding in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot on July 09th and 10th,” it said in its update on Saturday.
Intense floods have so far killed dozens of people and left thousands homeless in the country, officials said on Saturday.
At least 57 people, including women and children, were killed and 50 others got injured after being swept away in flood water and when the roofs of their houses collapsed, according to Ziaullah Langove, the disaster and home affairs adviser to the province’s chief minister.
Eight dams had burst due to the heavy rains, he added. Around 37 stranded farmers were rescued from floods in Lasbela in a joint operation conducted by the local administration and the FC personnel.
Rescue operations are underway and the government has announced its decision to provide Rs500,000 each to the family of people who died in rain related accidents.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two people, including a six-year-old, died and four were injured when their house collapsed due to rain, according to a district official statement.
Heavy rains have lashed the country in recent days, leaving large swathes of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, inundated with water.
“Sindh and Balochistan [are] going through very high percentages of rainfall over a 30-year average,” Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said while quoting the Pakistan Meteorological Department data in a tweet on Saturday.
Monsoon 2022 rainfall (mm) from July 1 to July 9, 2022
| Region | Normal(mm) | Actual(mm) | Dep% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 13.1 | 41.1 | 213 |
| Azad Jammu and Kashmir | 34.7 | 44.0 | 27 |
| Balochistan | 6.9 | 45.9 | 567 |
| Gilgit | 2.2 | 1.3 | -41 |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | 21.4 | 20.8 | -3 |
| Punjab | 22.3 | 32.9 | 47 |
| Sindh | 10.5 | 72.1 | 585 |
The National Disaster Management Authority has already alerted all the authorities concerned to remain vigilant and take all necessary precautionary measures.
“Keeping in view the expected situation during Eid holidays, NDMA has specifically advised rescue departments to make personnel, staff and equipment available to cope with any rain/flood-related incident,” it said in a statement on July 7.
