ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province will compensate survivors of this week’s deadly floods, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced on Sunday, urging residents of disaster-prone areas to relocate from there.
Monsoon rains have wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s northern areas, especially its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where floods and landslides have killed over 312 people since Aug. 15, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The cumulative death toll from rain-related incidents in Pakistan, which ranks among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, has surged to 645 since Jun. 26. Apart from KP, 164 deaths have been reported in Punjab, 29 in Balochistan, 14 in Azad Kashmir, eight in Islamabad, and 28 each in Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh.
Raging hill torrents flattened several homes and swept away dozens of people and in KP’s Swat, Buner, Bajaur, Torghar, Mansehra, Shangla and Battagram districts on Friday. Officials says around 54 bodies were found on Sunday in the worst-hit Buner district where cloudbursts triggered massive flooding.
“The data of all the losses is being compiled,” CM Gandapur told reporters in Buner. “It is beyond our power to compensate the loss of lives, but we will compensate financial losses, damages to private property.”
Residents in Buner have accused officials of failing to warn them to evacuate after torrential rain and cloudbursts triggered deadly flooding and landslides.
Mohammad Iqbal, a schoolteacher in Pir Baba village, said the lack of a timely warning system caused casualties and forced many to flee their homes at the last moment.
“Survivors escaped with nothing,” he said. “If people had been informed earlier, lives could have been saved and residents could have moved to safer places.”
The government said that while an early warning system was in place, the sudden downpour in Buner was so intense that the deluge struck before residents could be alerted.
Asfandyar Khan Khattak, director-general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said there was “no forecasting system anywhere in the world” that could predict the exact time and location of a cloudburst.
Several people are still missing and search efforts are focused on areas where homes were flattened by water torrents that swept down from the mountains, carrying massive boulders that smashed into houses like explosions.
Authorities have warned of more deluges and possible landslides till Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters, CM Gandapur vowed the government infrastructure relating to health, water, road or education would be fully restored. He, however, noted that some of the villages were located in such areas where any calamities like cloudbursts and floods could hit any time.
“So, we want to resettle residents of those small villages at another place and we will build houses for them, but they should evacuate these dangerous areas,” Gandapur said.
