The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has warned that farmers in the flood stricken areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not be able to sow wheat if they are not provided seed.
QUETTA, Aug 31: The country director of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that floods and torrential rains had affected over 20 million people and displaced 16 million Pakistanis.
Addressing a press conference at the UNHCR office here on Tuesday, Mengesha Kebede said the flood-affected area was equal to the size of Italy.
After devastating 500 villages of Sajawal, Junejo and Shahdadkot areas of upper Sindh, the flood wave is now heading to Kotri Barrage.
The cities including Shahdadkot, Qabu Saeed Khan, Mero Khan and Sajawal have been evacuated, as the surging floodwater has been diverted to Qabu Saeed Khan by making breaches on at least ten places in embankments.
About 78 per cent of rice crop in upper Sindh has been wiped out in floods.
According to preliminary estimates of the crop losses submitted to the federal government by the Sindh Agriculture Department, standing rice crops in upper Sindh, mainly Kashmore, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kandhkot have completely been washed away under strong torrent of flood waters.
The row over distribution of river water among provinces in Pakistan has erupted into a major crisis with the announcement by acting chairman of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) for opening the Chashma-Jhelum link canal releasing 10,000 cusecs of water to Punjab.
Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, was informed here on Wednesday that a revised one MGD treatment plant for domestic wastewater has been designed by water technologist Dr Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui of Industrial Development (ID) for Kotri city and submitted to Sindh government by Public Health Engineering (PHE).
The Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal (SEPT) headed by its chairperson Ashraf Jahan and members Dr Abdul Karim Memon and Dr Sami-uz-Zaman on Friday constituted a commission to investigate the use of asbestos in factories and submit a report on its health affects.
The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued notices to different industries of Kotri Industrial Area (KIA), Hyderabad for releasing industrial waste into the KB Feeder, meant for supplying potable water to Karachi city, it is learnt.
