ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued a weather warning on late Thursday, saying that heavy rains can cause urban flooding in over 20 cities of Pakistan and trigger flash flooding in the local nullahs and hill torrents of the southwestern Balochistan province.
Heavy monsoon rains have killed about 176 in Pakistan since mid-June and triggered urban flooding in various cities of the country.
Various parts of Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi remained submerged in water where 11 people were killed due to heavy rains on the second day of Eid Al-Adha. Rain also wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s impoverished, southwestern Balochistan province.
On Thursday, the PMD warned of heavy rains from July 14-18 due to a low-pressure area that has formed over southeast Sindh and the adjoining Northeast Arabian Sea.
“Heavy rains may generate urban flooding in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Dadu, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Mandi Bahauddin, Multan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Pakpattan, Vehari, Sahiwal and Khanewal,” it said.
The Met Office also advised fishermen to remain careful as sea conditions are likely to be very rough over the next couple of days.
Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said earlier this week that rains in Sindh and Balochistan have exceeded the 30-year average.
“Sindh & Balochistan still under heavy monsoon pressure for the last 13 days. Sindh is 625 percent above the 30-year average, Balochistan 501. ” she said in a Twitter post.
In 2010, one of the worst floods affected around 20 million people in Pakistan, with infrastructure damage running into billions of dollars and huge swathes of crops destroyed as one-fifth of the country was inundated.
