PESHAWAR: Thirty-five people have been killed and dozens more injured in the last five days as rains continue to batter Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said on Monday.
Heavy rains and snowfall last week have damaged hundreds of houses and bridges and shut off road and rail routes in several areas of Pakistan. In the country’s mountainous northern Gilgit-Baltistan, the main Karakoram Highway, Baltistan Road and other major roads remained blocked for a third consecutive day, leaving thousands of tourists, travelers, and traders stranded at various points.
In the southwest of the country, heavy snowfall brought daily life to a standstill in Quetta and other northern parts of Balochistan, with main highways and inter-provincial roads blocked since Saturday, cutting the remote province from other parts of the country.
“During the last five days, 35 people have died and 43 people have been injured as a result of accidents due to ongoing rains across the province,” the PDMA said in a statement, providing figures for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adding that “346 houses were partially damaged while 46 houses were completely damaged.”
The PDMA said food and other relief items were being sent to the areas of Charsadda, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Malakand, Mohmand, Bannu, Khyber, Bajaur, Nowshera and Peshawar on the orders of the province’s new Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur.
“Distribution of relief items underway including blankets, tents, jerry cans, gas cylinders, water coolers, mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, toilet kits, plastic mats, sandbags, tarpaulins,” the PDMA said, adding that the chief minister had ordered that “immediate steps” be taken to open closed roads.
Large swathes of Pakistan were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers, a phenomenon linked to climate change that damaged crops and infrastructure and killed at least 1,700 people and affected over 30 million.
Pakistan received commitments of more than $9 billion from international donors to help recover from the 2022 floods with rebuilding efforts estimated to cost about $16.3 billion, but little aid has come in so far.