Floodwaters are receding in Pakistan’s worst-hit southern Sindh province, officials said Friday, a potentially bright sign in an ongoing crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in the impoverished South Asian country.
The Indus River, which had swelled until earlier this month, was now rushing at “normal” levels towards the Arabian Sea, according to Mohammad Irfan, an irrigation official in Sindh. The water level in the past 48 hours receded as much as 3 feet in some of the inundated areas nearby, including the towns of Khairpur and Johi, where waist-high water damaged crops and homes earlier this month.
A day earlier, engineers had opened a key highway in the southwestern Baluchistan province, allowing rescue workers to speed up aid deliveries to those suffering as medics raced against the spread of waterborne diseases and dengue fever.
Still, hundreds of thousands in Sindh are living in makeshift homes and tents. Authorities say it will take months to completely drain the water in the province, where waterborne diseases and skin infections are spreading. Doctors said they treated 37,000 sick in flood-hit areas in the past 48 hours.