THATTA, Pakistan, (Reuters) – Thousands of people fled yesterday from the southern Pakistani town of Thatta after the swollen Indus river burst its banks and authorities ordered an evacuation.
Fresh flooding has sent a million people fleeing from their homes in the south in the past 48 hours, the United Nations said.
The death toll from the floods, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon downpours over the upper Indus basin a month ago, was expected to rise significantly as more bodies were found while many people were missing, a disaster authority spokeswoman said.
Floodwaters are beginning to recede across most of the country as the water flows downstream, but high tides in the Arabian Sea meant they still posed a threat to towns in Sindh province such as Thatta, 70 km (45 miles) east of Karachi.
“Concern continues to be the south,” U.N. spokeswoman Stacey Winston told a news conference. “In the last 48 hours nearly one million people have been displaced.”
The U.N. earlier said the floods had forced about six million people from their homes.
A stream of buses, cars, trucks and bullock carts snaked out of Thatta heading for higher ground. Many people were walking, driving livestock and carrying bundles of possessions.
But some people refused to go.
“We’re not going to leave. How can we leave? Who will protect my house?” said fisherman Bali Bhal sitting by the road.
The town has not been flooded but officials said they were taking no chances.
“Our biggest apprehension is if we are unable to control the water and road access is cut, then it would be very difficult to mobilise resources and evacuate people,” said provincial disaster management director Saleh Farooqi.
Many people from outlying areas had taken refuge in Thatta, which normally has a population of about 300,000, and now had to move again, another officials said.
But Farooqi said one breach in the river bank had been plugged and authorities were working to patch another.
The southern business hub of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is far away from the flood zone.
The official death toll is about 1,600 people but a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Authority said that number would go up.
