DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The Pakistan Army’s personnel on Monday rescued over 30 people stranded in the flood-hit villages of Kulachi tehsil here.

Colonel Shahnawaz of the Pakistan Army’s 8th Sindh Regiment told Dawn that 18 people, including 10 men, five women and three children, were evacuated from the flooded Kot Walidad village and 12 people from Rori, Kanori and Dara Nawab villages and most of them were patients.

He said rescue and relief operations by the Pakistan Army had been intensified in the disaster-hit areas of Dera Ismail Khan district with the stranded people being shifted to safer places.

Colonel Shahnawaz said food and other goods were being distributed to hundreds of families in Kulachi, Hathala, Jahangirabad, Kot Walidad, Rorri, Garah Nawab and surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, the Dera Ismail Khan district on Monday disclosed that flash floods had killed around 20 people, injured 60 people and ‘devastated’ 236 villages in the district since August 25.

According to a report issued by deputy commissioner Nasrullah Khan, the flash floods and hill torrents hurtling down the Koh-i-Sulaiman mountains and South Waziristan hills ‘devastated’ 236 villages in Dera Ismail Khan district and killed 20 people in the entire district.

It also said 60 residents were injured and of them, 33 belonged to Dera Ismail Khan tehsil, 10 to Darazinda tehsil, nine to Prova tehsil, four to Paharpur tehsil, three to Daraban tehsil and one to Kulachi tehsil

The report said the deluge hit 25,251 houses destroying 15,597 and damaging 9,654.

It said the floods killed 9,395 cattle head in the district with 7,500 perished in Paharpur tehsil, 830 in Kulachi tehsil, 450 in Dera Ismail Khan tehsil, 425 Darazinda tehsil, 115 in Daraban tehsil and 75 in Prova tehsil.

The report said the floodwaters affected 58,549 acres agricultural land in Dera Ismail Khan tehsil, 98,367 acres in Prova tehsil, 33,440 acres in Paharpur tehsil and 328 acres in Daraban tehsil with such lands totalling 193,606 acres.

It added that the district administration distributed 4,604 tents, 3,500 mosquito nets, 1,200 pillows, 2,100 kitchen sets, 620 quilts, 2,450 mattresses, 1,150 water coolers, 75 life jackets, 1,400 plastic sheets, 350 jerrycans, 2,920 tarpaulin sheet and 650 hygiene kits to flood victims, and set up relief camps at the Government Degree College Prova, Government Higher Secondary School Ramak, Rural Health Centre Kirri Shamozai and Government High School Naivelan in Prova tehsil.

The report said relief camps were set up in the Government Higher Secondary School in Daraban tehsil, Government High School Saggu in Kulachi Tehsil and Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Kulachi.

It added that a relief camp was established at Government Degree College for Boys in Darazinda tehsil and at the Ratta Kulachi Sports Complex in Dera Ismail Khan tehsil.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022