PAKISTAN: Floodwater inundates villages along Kabul river

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ISLAMABAD, 24 Jun 2005 (IRIN) - At least 100 mud-walled houses have been damaged by floods while about 500 families have been evacuated by Pakistani army rescue teams after several villages along the River Kabul were flooded on Thursday, according to initial reports by the relief department of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"People have been shifted to the houses of their relatives and some to public buildings. But so far, we've not received any report concerning human casualty or cattle loss," Ghulam Jillani, the deputy relief commissioner, said from provincial capital, Peshawar.

Due to high summer temperatures and increased snowmelt in the hilly terrain, almost all the seasonal rivers and their tributaries in NWFP are in high flow, according to officials at the national meteorological office in the capital, Islamabad. Mountainous parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan received heavy prolonged snowfall during the winter, this is now melting rapidly due to high seasonal temperatures, causing river water levels in the area to rise.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations department in Peshawar, nearly 500 families from villages along the river in the districts of Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar have been rescued by boat by some 200 troops. The NWFP relief department has started distributing tents and food to displaced people.

Meanwhile, in an assessment by a UN interagency coordination committee in Peshawar, some 1,000 families in the three flood-affected districts have been identified as in need of food and shelter.

"Several hectares of agriculture land and standing crops are also under water but at the moment no assessment is possible of that," Dr Quaid Saeed, coordinator of the UN's inter-agency committee, told IRIN from Peshawar.

According to the national meteorological department, the unusually high temperatures would persist for another few days -at around 40 to 48 Celsius. Likewise, a persistent flood risk in low-lying parts of three districts of NWFP is likely to remain, due to high water levels in the Kabul river.

[ENDS]