Floods in India and Pakistan have killed as many as 400 people, with authorities in both countries warning of more flooding ahead.
The flash floods, which began on September 3, have put more than half a million people in peril and rendered thousands homeless in the two neighboring states.
Pakistani and Indian troops have been using boats and helicopters to drop food supplies for stranded families and evacuate victims.
According to Ahmad Kamal, a spokesman for Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, the floods were now moving toward Pakistan’s south. Evacuations were already underway in several southern districts that could soon be inundated, said Kamal.
With the Himalayan hills in Kashmir stripped off their green cover, fast flowing streams were causing soil erosion and flash floods, said Krishnaswamy Srinivas of the Vasudha Foundation, a New Delhi-based environmental advocacy group.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the flood-hit regions, assuring the people to do everything he could to ensure their rehabilitation.
“This is a national calamity; the federal government will extend all help needed,” Modi said after an aerial survey of the region.
He also expressed India’s readiness to extend “whatever help needed” for the people of Pakistan.
HN/HJL/HRB
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