World Bank: Food prices near dangerous levels

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165804.html

The World Bank says the global hike in food prices have reached dangerous levels, pushing some 44 million more people into poverty in just over six months.

"Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world," AFP quoted World Bank chief Robert Zoellick as saying in a recent statement.

"The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food," he went on to say.

According to the latest edition of the bank's Food Price Watch, prices rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011.

According to reports, 100 million people became prone to extreme poverty in the 2008 food crisis. The World Bank defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than $1.25 a day.

The bank's food-price index rose 15 percent between October and January, led by wheat, sugar and edible oil. The level is only three percent below the 2008 peak, when surging costs sparked riots in more than a dozen countries.

Corn has surged 86 percent in the past year, and wheat is up 69 percent after drought and floods damaged crops from Russia to Argentina. The Food and Agriculture Organization's World Food Price Index reached a record high in January for a second consecutive month

Heat wave puts Argentina on high alert

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157707.html


Argentina is in the grip of a sizzling heat wave that has left millions in hellish conditions, while the northern hemisphere fights freezing temperatures.

On Tuesday temperatures soared to 36 C (97 F) in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, creating scenes the total opposite of those in snowbound Europe and the United States.

This, coupled with power outages and a fuel shortage, has forced Argentina's National Meteorological Service to issue a high alert for Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas.

Authorities believe that the heat-wave poses health risk for the Argentineans.

"The city of Buenos Aires has a summer average of 90 deaths per day but, for example, during the heat wave at the beginning of 2001 it went up to 250 deaths in a single day," the weather service warned on its website.

Meanwhile, Argentine Health Minister Juan Manzur announced on Tuesday that high temperatures are expected to continue throughout the week and advised people to stay out of sun and drink lots of water.

The heat-wave has also caused concerns for the country's agriculture sector.

Farmers believe that the hot weather along with the decrease in rainfall could continue until March, endangering grain exports -- one of Argentina's main sources of income.

Adding to the crisis, the climatic phenomenon La Nina has meanwhile spread drought across large parts of Argentina's richest agricultural regions.

The heat wave has also set a "historic record" in electricity consumption across the capital.

This has led to 24-hour-long outages in numerous Buenos Aires neighborhoods and urban districts, frustrating residents and triggering bitter protests in the festive holiday season.

Critics lay the blame squarely on government policies that have deterred investment in the energy sector.

8 Million children in Pakistan face food shortage

This file photo shows a boy sitting on the ground crying as he waits for an evening food handout at a center for flood victims near Nowshera in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on August 23, 2010.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155686.html


Eight million Pakistani children are suffering from food shortage in Pakistan and 3.5 million others do forced hard labor, a provincial official says.

Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Information Shamila Farooqi told reporters that the recent devastating floods had affected about seven million Pakistanis, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

“There are more than 10,000 street children under the age of 15 in Karachi while over 4,500 children are in prisons, out of which cases of 66 percent children are in pending at courts,” Farooqi added.

She further pointed out that flood-affected children are facing problems in getting medical treatment and education because many of the schools in interior Sindh were damaged or affected by the floods.

According to Farooqi, about 23 million Pakistani children are deprived of even basic education.

“Child Rights Bureau is the need of the hour to protect child rights and provide health, education and other facilities to them, particularly those affected by the floods,” she concluded.

'Food security,' Pakistan's main concern

The flooding, considered the worst in Pakistan's history, has left a fifth of the
country under water


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140901.html


Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed concerns over food security due to the long lasting damage to the nation's agriculture.

He said floods have ravaged Pakistan's economy, and called the social impact of the disaster "serious."

"The floods have inflicted damage to the economy which may, by some estimates, reach USD 43 billion, while affecting 30 percent of all agricultural land," Reuters quoted Gilani as saying during a Cabinet briefing on Wednesday.

Agriculture is the core of Pakistan's economy and a major source of employment in the impoverished country.

"This economic loss will translate into massive job losses affecting incomes of thousands of families, which may have serious social implications,” the prime minister noted.

The international aid agency, Oxfam, has warned that Pakistan will face severe problems unless reconstruction begins immediately.

Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south of Pakistan over the past month.

The flooding, considered the worst in the country's history has claimed the lives of at least 1,600 people and displaced more than 17 million others, one out of every nine Pakistanis.

It has also affected the lives of 20 million others and left a fifth of the country under water.

The United Nations has warned that millions of children risk contracting deadly diseases while in contact with contaminated water.

World Bank boosts Pakistan aid to $1bn

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140941.html


As funding for flood-devastated Pakistan has almost stalled, the World Bank has boosted its support to one billion dollars from 900 million dollars.

The World Bank said in a statement on Wednesday that it has made the funding available to finance immediate recovery needs and longer-term reconstruction.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick also said the flood-hit Pakistan needs the world's support to meet urgent humanitarian needs.

Meanwhile, Manuel Bessler, head of the UN coordination agency, said the funding had been almost stalled since the beginning of last week.

The Pakistani government announced that the country had suffered losses of about 43 billion dollars because of the floods.

Heavy monsoon rains triggered the natural disaster, affecting 30 percent of agricultural land and more than 10 percent of the population.

According to the United Nations, more than 18 million people have so far been affected.

United Nations Children's Fund Executive Director Anthony Lake said the disaster has affected nearly 8.6 million children.

Pakistan's government has confirmed 1,645 people dead and 2,479 injured but officials warn that millions are at risk of fatal diseases and food shortages.

'Pakistan needs 3 years to recover'

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139848.html


Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says it would take years to rehabilitate the country after the devastating floods.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but three years is a minimum," Zardari told reporters Monday when asked how long it would take Pakistan to go through relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation after the floods.

He warned that his impoverished and volatile country is facing drastic problems.

“I don't think Pakistan will ever fully recover but we will move on," Zardari said, adding that the government was working to protect people from potential future flooding.

More than 1,600 people have lost their lives and 20 million have been affected by nearly a month of flooding which has engulfed a fifth of the country. Disaster is far from over as the country braces itself for a fresh wave of floods in the country's south.

Floodwaters have surged deeper into areas of Sindh province in southern Pakistan. More rains have been forecast for different parts of the flood-stricken country.

A Press TV correspondent reported from Islamabad that the situation in Pakistan's flood-hit areas is turning from bad to worse, particularly in the southern part of Punjab which is the biggest province of Pakistan and the food-basket of the country.

He said that 85 percent of the country's cotton crop depends on the southern belt of Punjab province which has been completely destroyed.
It is becoming very difficult for the Pakistani government to deal with such a situation, the Press TV correspondent said.

Meanwhile, the response to UN appeal for $460 million for rescue and relief operation in Pakistan rose dramatically to over $800 million by Friday.

Pakistan's Sindh faces more floods

The UN estimates that nearly one-fourth of Pakistan
has been affected by the floods [AFP]



Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108134956634834.html


Pakistan's Sindh province is bracing for a second round of heavy flooding, with authorities warning it could be as big as the first wave, which displaced millions and destroyed thousands of homes.

Authorities said waters have unexpectedly begun to rise at the Kotri barrage along the Indus river in southern Sindh, and now threaten to overrun the embankments around the barrage. Flooding at Kotri could potentially threaten the city of Hyderabad.

Rains continue to fall in parts of Pakistan, and another surge of water is expected to reach the the province by Saturday night.

Pakistan's meteorological office expects rains to continue in the north until Sunday, and monsoon season does not end for several more weeks.

More than 1,600 people have been confirmed dead since flooding began in Pakistan more than two weeks ago, and authorities fear the death toll could be far higher.

'Heartbreaking scene'

Andro Shilakadze, the head of the Unicef office in Sindh province, called the situation a "heartbreaking scene".

"You see people sitting on the streets... building primitive shelters and asking for food and drinking water," he told Al Jazeera. "The government had established around 600 tents [for displaced people] but because of the unprecedented devastation of this flood, the need is unmatched."

The government, the United Nations and private charities have all struggled to provide relief. At least 15 million people have been affected by the floods and the UN estimates up to one-quarter of Pakistan has been affected.

The UN has requested $460m from international donors, about $160m of which has been committed so far.

Aid agencies say the most urgent needs are shelter - tents, plastic sheeting and household goods - along with food and clean water.

Zardari's first trip

Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, made his first visit to the affected areas on Thursday.

Zardari's spokesman said he was briefed on the damage and the relief efforts after arriving at the Sukkur barrage in Sindh. He also met victims at a camp for displaced persons.

Security was tight, with only state media allowed access to his visit; television showed him comforting a sobbing elderly woman, and listening to complaints from villagers.

A local official told the AFP news agency that Zardari had distributed relief goods among flood victims at the camp.

Zardari travelled to Europe at the height of the disaster, spending a week in France and the United Kingdom, a trip that earned him widespread scorn in Pakistan.

Disease threatens 6 million Pakistani children

A flood-affected Pakistani child


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138503§ionid=351020401


Aid agencies warn that at least six million children are at risk of diarrheal diseases, malnutrition and pneumonia following the devastating floods in Pakistan.

Save the Children's spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammed Qazilbash, said outbreaks of cholera and malaria are the biggest concern.

''In southern Punjab and Sindh, there are vast numbers of people living right along the water, some in makeshift houses with very poor hygiene and sanitation," he added.

''Children are drinking, washing in and going to the toilet in the same river water. If this sanitation crisis is not tackled now, in six months' time, millions and millions of children will be suffering potentially deadly diarrhea and other diseases," Qazilbash said.

As the figures continue to rise, UNICEF says that 6 million children have been affected by the floods in Pakistan with some 2.7 million children in need of urgent, lifesaving assistance.

"This is the biggest natural disaster to hit Pakistan and this region in living memory, bigger than the Tsunami or the earthquake, with millions of children and women struggling to survive in dire conditions," the United Nations International Children's Fund said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, doctors working in northern areas of Punjab and the Swat Valley have reported that children living in displacement camps have been affected by outbreaks of measles.

The head of emergencies for the British aid agency, World Vision, Mark Bulpitt, said, "as we continue to reach those most affected by this flood, we must also focus on the longer-term recovery, prioritizing livelihoods and education to ensure more of Pakistan's children do not become victims of child labor."

“Schools have been washed away so education will need to be prioritized, houses and health centers are unusable and then there is the emotional fallout of living through a disaster as devastating as this one," Bulpitt added.

Pakistan's deadliest floods in decades have killed more than 1,500 people and exhausted government efforts to provide aid to the flood-ravaged regions.

Global wheat supply forecast slashed

Wheat prices have climbed sharply as the latest official US
predictions ‎of global output undercut previous predictions.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138497§ionid=3510213


The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has sharply slashed its forecast for 2010-11 world wheat production after revising its crop outlook for Russia.

On Thursday, the USDA cut its forecast for global wheat output by 2.3% to 645.73 million tons. That is below recent estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which saw the crop at 651 million tons, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Estimations for wheat production have been cut repeatedly since the middle of the summer, when the severity of record-setting heat and drought in the former Soviet Union became apparent.

"The Russian drought has changed the landscape of agriculture for the next 18 months at least," said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Company, an agricultural research firm. "There will be plenty of volatility in the months to come."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had already warned that this year's grain harvest would be worse than previously thought.

Record drought in Russia has prompted the country's prime minister to place a temporary ban on grain exports until the end of the year.

"In connection with the unusually high temperatures and the drought, I consider it right to impose a temporary ban on the export from Russia of grain and other products produced from grain," Putin told a government meeting on Thursday.

The announcement has sent wheat prices soaring on US exchanges and caused double-digit gains in Europe.

Meanwhile, FAO has cut its global wheat production forecast for 2010 due to the impact of unfavorable weather on crops in recent weeks.

The global wheat production forecast is now expected to be 651 million tons, down from the 676 million tons anticipated in June, the Rome-based agency said in a statement.

However, the FAO pointed out that global inventories are sufficient, thanks to two consecutive years of record crops, to cover the anticipated production shortfall.

"Despite production problems in some leading exporting countries, the world wheat market remains far more balanced than at the time of the world food crisis in 2007/2008 and fears of a new global food crisis are not justified at this point," it stated.

UN launches Pakistan aid appeal

At least four million people will need food assistance
across Pakistan over the next three months [AFP]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010811134327870815.html


The United Nations has launched an appeal for $459m to help the victims of devastating floods that have affected more than 14 million people across Pakistan.


The call from the UN's humanitarian agency on Wednesday came as food prices skyrocketed after huge areas of crops were destroyed by the waters.

"We have a huge task in front of us to deliver all that is required as soon as possible," John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, said at a meeting at UN headquarters.


According to UN figures, more than 1,600 have died and nearly 300,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

"The death toll has so far been relatively low compared to other major natural disasters, but the numbers affected are extraordinarily high," Holmes warned.

"If we don't act fast enough, many more people could die of diseases and food shortages."


Holmes said the money sought represented the minimum needed for emergency assistance over the next three months and did not include anything for rebuilding infrastructure.


Fields swept away


At least 1.4 million acres of crops were destroyed in Punjab, the breadbasket of Pakistan, according to the United Nations. Fields in the floodplains of the northwest have also been devastated as rivers have spilled over their banks.


An official in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said maize, rice, sugarcane and vegetable crops were the most affected.

I had 200 kilos of corn at my home which the flood took away with it," Dil Aram Khan, a farmer from Pirpai in Nowshera District, said.

"All of our wealth is destroyed along with our wheat."

At least four million people are expected to need food assistance across Pakistan for the next three months at a cost of nearly $100m.


Marcus Prior, the spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), said his organisation had received a "pretty decent response so far".


"We've had just over $13m committed and we have good indication that other donors are going to step in and help us out in a very significant way in the days ahead," he told Al Jazeera.


"The fact is that we have at least the food we need for the first month to feed those people who have been so badly affected ... But we need contributions to buy food locally here in Pakistan."


Food prices soar


Food prices shot up significantly as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan started and are likely to exercabate misery in a country where many people live in abject poverty.


The prices of basic items such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and squash have in some cases quadrupled in recent days, putting them out of reach for many Pakistanis.

We will fast but we don't know how will we break the fast, whether we will find any food or not. Only Allah knows," Nusrat Shah, a displaced Pakistani in Sukkur, told the Reuters news agency.


Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman, reporting from Swat Valley, one of the worst-hit areas, said it was unclear whether the situation might actually get worse before it gets better.


"We're still in the middle of the monsoon season ... the clouds come and go," he said.

"They certainly did on Tuesday [and] it rained all through the night and then it cleared on Wednesday. Of course, no one knows what will happen."

US army helicopters have been carrying emergency food and water to areas in the northwest.

But our correspondent said "whatever aid does comes in it could not reach some people too soon".


Jane Cocking, the humanitarian director at Oxfam, said "people are absolutely desperate".


"We are fixing water supplies, distributing really essential items, but at the moment it is not enough. Any new donation is welcome but to be perfectly honest it is not enough yet," she told Al Jazeera.


"The scale of the disaster is almost impossible to describe. And I think that might be why people are struggling to understand it, but we're talking about half of Pakistan which is an enormous country and that's absolutely massive."


Taliban threat


Meanwhile, Pakistan's Taliban has denounced all foreign aid for flood victims and said they can match the latest US pledge of $20 million.

"We condemn American and other foreign aid and believe that it will lead to subjugation. Our jihad against America will continue," Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the group, told the AFP news agency.


"The government should not accept American aid and if it happens, we can give $20m to them as aid for the flood victims," he said.

"We'll ourselves distribute relief under leadership of our chief Hakimullah Mehsud among the people, if the government assures us that none of our members will be arrested."

Soaring food prices hit Pakistan

At least 4 million people will need food assistance across
Pakistan for the next three months [AFP]



Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/201081135552727621.html


Food prices in flood-hit Pakistan have skyrocketed, after vast stretches of crops were destroyed in the country's worst flooding in 80 years.


The rising prices threaten to amplify misery in a country where many residents were already mired in poverty before the floods struck.

The prices of basic items such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and squash have in some cases quadrupled in recent days, putting them out of reach for many Pakistanis.


At least 1.4 million acres of crops were destroyed in Punjab, the breadbasket of Pakistan, according to the United Nations.

Crops destroyed

Many more crops were devastated in the northwest, where residents were still trying to recover from intense battles between the Taliban and the army last year.

At least 4 million people will need food assistance across Pakistan for the next three months at a cost of nearly $100 million.

Farmers have returned to find their fields and crops destroyed.

"I had 200 kilos of corn at my home which the flood took away with it," said Dil Aram Khan, a farmer from Pirpai in Nowshera District.

"All of our wealth is destroyed along with our wheat."

An official in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said maize, rice, sugarcane and vegetable crops were the most affected.

Another farmer said he used to hand any excess produce to the poor.

"Now the situation is this that we ourselves are waiting for charity," Iltaf Hussain Kakar said.

Call to reject aid

Pakistan's Taliban have denounced all foreign aid for flood victims and said they can match the latest US pledge of $20 million.

"We condemn American and other foreign aid and believe that it will lead to subjugation. Our jihad against America will continue," a spokesman for the group, Azam Tariq, told the AFP news agency.


"The government should not accept American aid and if it happens, we can give $20 million to them as aid for the flood victims," he said.

We will ourselves distribute relief under leadership of our chief Hakimullah Mehsud among the people, if the government assures us that none of our members will be arrested."

The US announced on Tuesday it would increase its flood aid by another $20 million to $55 million.

Daniel Feldman, a senior US State Department official working on Afghanistan and Pakistan, dismissed reports of extremist groups providing aid to needy Pakistanis as "quite overblown".

Referring to US efforts to win public support in a country where anti-American feeling runs high, Ward said the US government tries to "brand as much as possible" of its aid.


"In this crisis, in the face of this disaster, we very much want the Pakistani people to know that the people of the United States are behind them, are helping," Ward said.

Landslides hamper Pakistan relief

Millions of acres of farmland in the country have been
Swamped by the floods [Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder]



Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010893572554270.html


Landslides have cut off large portions of Pakistan's Swat Valley and hampered efforts to help the 15 million people affected by Pakistan's worst flooding in decades.


Many roads and bridges have been washed away by the floodwaters, and heavy rains are preventing helicopters from taking off.

The United Nations has described the flooding, that has killed an estimated 1,600 people nationwide, as the worst natural disaster in years.

"This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake," Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the C-oordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.

"Those who need humanitarian assistance here are certainly more than those needing assistance in any of the other three disasters," Giuliano told Al Jazeera on Monday.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, visited Sindh province on Sunday and said that "millions of people have suffered, and still there is more rain, and further losses are feared".

"I appeal to the world to help us. We are doing what we can," he said.


"The government has done everything possible, but it is beyond our capacity, we are facing an extremely difficult situation."

Shortages

But residents in Swat, in northwestern Pakistan, have complained of worsening food and fuel shortages as the crisis drags on.

"There is no petrol in the pumps and no food in the shop," said Malik Amir Zada, a Swat resident, in a telephone interview with the AFP news agency.

"The government is doing nothing for us."


Rescue workers have rushed to evacuate thousands of families from the southern part of Sindh province, where floodwaters could burst the banks of the Indus river.

Food prices are expected to rise as the waters continue to swamp agricultural areas.


Pakistan's Express-Tribune newspaper reported "skyrocketing" fruit and vegetable prices on Sunday.

"Floods and rains have made these things unaffordable," one shopper in Lahore told the newspaper.

Millions of acres of crops have been destroyed in Punjab province, often called the "rice bowl" of Pakistan, and across the northwest.

The flooding has also caused extensive damage to Pakistan's electrical infrastructure, forcing power plants to shut down across the country.


Pakistan already suffers from a crippling electricity crisis, with hours-long blackouts a daily occurrence.

More than 252,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed across Pakistan, according to the government.

Pakistan's military said over the weekend that it has rescued more than 100,000 people from flooded areas.

'Zardari's Katrina'

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, is expected to return to the country on Monday or Tuesday after a visit to France and the United Kingdom.

The trip, at the height of the disaster, was criticised by many Pakistanis, who accused Zardari of mismanaging the crisis.

Fatima Bhutto, Zardari's estranged niece, called the flooding "Zardari's Katrina", a reference to George Bush's, the former US president, handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Many villagers have complained about a lack of basic services in relief camps established by the government and the Pakistani army.

The army has about 300,000 troops working on the relief effort, but some human rights activists are concerned that the military is undermining civilian institutions.

"Yes, it is the military's job to take care of the rescue, but the civil administration must be strengthened and properly organised," Hina Jilani, a Pakistani supreme court advocate, told Al Jazeera.

Jilani said that local communities need to play a larger role in the response.

Pakistan flood casualties mount

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137872§ionid=351020401


More heavy rains in Pakistan are hampering efforts to deliver aid to over 15 million people affected by the country's devastating floods.

Nearly 40 people were killed and several others injured in the most recent deluge caused by torrential rains in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The monsoon rains, which began on July 27, caused floods and damage in different parts of the province, rendering many communities inaccessible due to destroyed roads and collapsed bridges.

As the number of people affected by the flooding exceeds 15 million, Pakistan's Federal Flood Commission has warned that the Indus River was overflowing its banks in the south.

The floodwaters flowing from northwestern Pakistan have already destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.

The two weeks of flooding have, so far, claimed over 1,600 lives. Meanwhile, in neighboring Indian-controlled Kashmir, floods have killed over 130 people.

Authorities expect the death toll to rise as hundreds are missing and rescue workers are unable to reach affected areas.

Pakistani exodus as floods spread

Floodwaters have washed through villages in Punjab
and are now threatening Sindh [Kamal Hyder]


Source: Press TV
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010863585788454.html


Authorities in Pakistan have evacuated at least 500,000 people from at-risk areas in the south as the worst floods in living memory threatened the country's farming heartland.

The number of people affected across the country has risen to more than four million after rivers swept through villages, washed away roads and destroyed crops.

With the death toll already numbering at least 1,500 people, authorities in the densely populated southern province of Sindh warned that major floods were expected this weekend in fertile agricultural areas along the swollen Indus river.

"We are seeing a number of preparations being made across Sindh province," Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reported from the southern coastal city Karachi.

"So far 500,000 people have been evacuated. Nearly 250,000 homes have been destroyed across the provinces bordering Sindh.

"The floods are coming further south. Nobody knows whether the floodwaters will reach Karachi, but severe flood warnings have been issued."


Villagers flee

Further north in Punjab province, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said people were streaming out of flooded villages, wading barefoot through water, cramming belongings onto donkey carts and into cars under heavy rain.

"This morning when people woke up they found the water encroaching upon their land and they decided to move out.

"They are complaining that they had no warning from the authorities to evacuate so that they could save their valuables and get out in time."

Officials warned that dams could burst as heavy rains continued to lash the Punjab town of Kot Addu, transforming the area into a giant lake.

"All these villages are dangerous now. We are evacuating the population. Important installations are in danger," Manzoor Sarwar, the chief of police for Muzaffargarh district, said.


Manuel Bessler, the head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, warned that the country was now facing "a major catastrophe".

"Altogether, more than four million people are in one way or another affected," he said.

Survivors has lashed out at authorities for failing to come to their rescue and provide better relief.

Particular scorn has been heaped on Asif Ali Zardari, the deeply unpopular president, for pressing ahead with a visit to Europe at the height of the disaster.


However, Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, said "relief items in sufficient quantity" have been provided.


About 30,000 Pakistani soldiers are helping to rebuild bridges, deliver food and set up relief camps in the northwest, which was hit first by the disaster.


Foreign countries and the United Nations have donated millions of dollars, and US army helicopters are assisting with evacuating stranded villagers and delivering aid.


As Zardari prepared for talks on Friday in London with Prime Minister David Cameron, British charities grouped as the Disasters Emergency Committee launched an urgent appeal on TV and radio for donations.

Pakistan floods trigger mass exodus

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010847584729225.html


Thousands of people in Pakistan's Punjab province are fleeing their homes as the worst floods in the country's history threaten more areas in the south.

Floodwaters have submerged numerous villages and begun to pour into major urban centres like the city of Kot Addu in Punjab.

UN and Pakistani officials say 3.2 million people are affected by the floods along the Indus River, and that at least 1,500 people have died in the past week.

"We have been able to see a mass exodus of people in south Punjab and the water is still rising", Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said on Wednesday.

Hurried evacuation

"People are evacuating in a hurry, complaining that they have not received any help from the government," he said.

At least 47 people had been killed in Punjab, Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said.

Nearly 1,000 villages have been affected and some 15,000 houses destroyed in the province, according to the UN.

The rush of muddy water over river banks in Punjab threatened to destroy vast stretches of crops that make the province Pakistan's breadbasket.

The army used boats and helicopters to move stranded villagers in the area to higher ground.

Water levels were so high in large tracts of Kot Addu and the nearby area of Layyah in the south of the province, that only tree tops and uppermost floors of some buildings were visible.

A military spokesman told reporters that at least 30,000 people have been rescued from flood-hit zones in Kot Addu and nearby areas over the previous 72 hours.

He warned that more flooding was expected as weather forecasts predicted more rains in the next few days.

"People must co-operate with us, and they must leave those areas where floods are going to hit," he said.

This year's monsoon season has prompted the worst flooding in Pakistan in living memory.

The northwestern region of the country was the worst hit, until flood waters flowed downstream to inundate large areas in the south.

Food crisis

The UN is scrambling to provide food and other assistance to millions of people affected in the water-soaked nation, which was already struggling with violence and a poor economy.

It has warned of serious food shortages following the loss of farm produce in the floods. The World Food Program has estimated that 1.8 million people will need to be fed over the next month.

"People [in the flood areas] are literal fighting to get food aid”, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, said.

Rescue workers have struggled to deliver aid because of washed-out bridges and roads and downed communication lines.

Several foreign countries have stepped in to help, including the United States, which announced on Tuesday that it was sending six large military helicopters from Afghanistan to help with the relief effort.

But many flood victims have complained that aid is not reaching them fast enough or at all.

Flooding tests China’s giant dam

Weeks of torrential rains have brought some of the
worst flooding seen in China for a decade [Reuters]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/07/201072435320990152.html

China's most severe floods in a decade are threatening to get worse as the landmark Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river is close to overflowing, with its reservoir almost full.

The water level reached 158 metres on Saturday morning, just 17 metres from the reservoir's maximum capacity, flood control headquarters in the central province of Hubei told The Associated Press.

Two typhoons - Conson and Chantu - and weeks of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding across several of China's southern provinces, affecting 110 million people.

Weather conditions are likely to worsen further with China's national weather centre issuing a warning on Saturday of more torrential rains for the region.

The floods have left 273 dead and 218 missing since July 1, Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan reporting from Hunan province, said. The direct economic losses are estimated to be around $20bn, she said.

More than eight million people have been forced to leave their homes since the floods began.

Maximum capacity


Huge amounts of water thundered out of Three Gorges' massive spill-gates on Friday as authorities in Jiangxi said the eastern province downstream was at a "critical juncture" in flood control.

The provincial government ordered authorities to redouble flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains.

"Over the next 20 to 30 days, the high water level of the Yangtze River's Jiujiang section and Poyang Lake will continue. The flood situation is very grim," the provincial government said in a statement.

With a wall running over two kilometres wide and 185 metres tall, Three Gorges was built at a cost of $27bn.

The reservoir behind the dam holds around 39 trillion litres of water, but it is now reaching its limit.

Already authorities have been forced the close the massive shipping locks built into the dam.

Zhao Yunfa, the deputy director of the China Three Gorges Corporation's dispatch centre, said this week that the dam's capacity can only withstand floods that reach up to 83,700 cubic metres per second - only about 18 per cent more than the dam's record water flow on Tuesday, the China Daily newspaper reported.

"The dam's flood control capacity is not unlimited," the newspaper quoted Zhao as saying.


Floods 'super-alert'


The Hubei provincial government said several flood-hit areas had been put on "super-alert" in anticipation of increased water flow and the large Danjiangkou reservoir had reached its flood-control maximum.

Chen Lei, the minister of water resources, urged those responsible to continue to inspect and protect dams and reservoirs as well as prepare for heavy rainfalls.

Work teams have been dispatched to areas including Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu to co-ordinate flood-fighting efforts, Xinhua said.

Elsewhere in southern China, Guangdong province was hit by the full force of Typhoon Chanthu, the second such storm to hit the country in less than a week.

Chanthu made landfall late on Thursday with winds of up to 126 kilometres per hour sending debris flying through the air and killing at least two people.

State television broadcast images of large waves crashing onto the Guangdong shore and said electricity, telecommunications and water services were cut in some areas.


On Friday, Chanthu was downgraded to a tropical storm as it headed towards the city of Nanning, although it is still causing heavy rains.

Liu Ning, the vice-minister of water resources, warned of more misery to come as the typhoon season gets into gear, saying six to eight major typhoons were expected in the coming months.