QUETTA, Aug 23: The Balochistan government fears thousands of people will starve to death if the international community fails to provide immediate relief for them, especially food and drinking water.

“The government does not have resources to meet needs of the flood-affected people living in the open in scorching heat in Jaffarabad and Nasirabad,” provincial minister Sadiq Ali Umrani said at a press conference on Monday.

He said affected people needed immediate relief and called upon philanthropists to come forward and play their role in this hour of need.

He appealed to Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Gulf states, international donor agencies and UN organisations to provide relief and financial assistance directly to Balochistan.

“Delay in providing food, drinking water and shelter to the affected people can cause another human tragedy,” he warned.

Provincial ministers belonging to the Pakistan People's Party Tahir Mehmood, Mir Mohammad Younus Mullazai, Mrs Ghazala Gola and Mir Ali Madad Jattak were present at the press conference.

Mr Umrani said that about 1.1 million people had been displaced in Balochistan by the flooding and the government had no resources to feed them.

He said floods had wreaked havoc in 12 districts of the province but no representative of any international relief agencies, including Unicef, had visited these areas yet.

He said thousands of people were marooned in the affected areas and the situation there was worsening with the outbreak of gastroenteritis, cholera, skin and eye infection and waterborne diseases among the flood victims.

He said clean drinking water was not available in flood-hit areas because the entire water supply network had been destroyed.

He said floods had washed away 5,028 villages, standing crops on 186,844 acres and 195kms of 39 roads in Nasirabad division; standing crops on 5,000 acres in Sibi division; 13 villages in Lehri tehsil; 12 villages in Kohlu Tehsil; standing crops on 500 acres in Talli tehsil and the Talli-Lehri road.