Water rose a meter a minute, said Nazer is sitting in front of his tent, his face like a mask of stone. The 50 year old father of four still cannot believe what happened. Within just four or five minutes, the flood levels\u00a0in his village in northwest Pakistan rose up to four metres. The young man sitting beside him, Mujahid Gul, looks around at the village \u2013 or what remains of it \u2013 and says people are happy simply to have survived.<\/p>\n
Massive rain since the end of July has caused Pakistan’s worst floods. The village of Zareen Abad with its 500 houses is still under water. Said Nazer and the other inhabitants settled on higher ground on the brink of the village. In the graveyard, they live in tents and under plastic sheeting.<\/p>\n
Under no circumstances do they want to leave their village. Instead, they want to start clearing the debris as soon as possible. But before they can start, the water has to completely drain. For that,\u00a0flood victims need pumps and generators. As Nauman Shah, coordinator of\u00a0ACT Alliance member Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, says, this should\u00a0happen as soon as possible. Otherwise, the water will\u00a0destroy the brick houses totally.<\/p>\n
Although his house is at the brink of the village and still partly under water, Shah Saeed has already started repairing the roof. The father of five cannot just sit and wait. Underneath, household goods, including mattresses and furniture,\u00a0are rotting in the water. Gone also\u00a0are the villagers’ cattle. Nearly all buffalo, goats and hens are dead, Nauman says. He believes the number of dead people could rise to 1000 in Nowshera district alone. Some of the still-flooded houses must contain bodies, he believes.<\/p>\n
Also in the neighbouring village of Pashtoon Gari, the\u00a0river Kabul, which has flooded most of the low-lying land, brought destruction with it. Water\u00a04m high ran through the village and\u00a0left devastation. Fagir Sheer, a 30 year old labourer,\u00a0is trying\u00a0to salvage\u00a0some of his belongings from the mud and debris. But there is not much that he can use anymore. How he will\u00a0manage to rebuild his house, in which he was living with his mother and\u00a0brother, he\u00a0has no clue.<\/p>\n
Fagir Sheer, as with\u00a0many other villagers, is\u00a0still\u00a0in shock. Daily labourers like himself have lost their work because the fields around the village are totally covered by water. A field with sugar cane, for example, is totally devastated. Most fields are still under water. In some places, the\u00a0remains of cattle lie in the water. Sometimes when it is too hot, the smell is\u00a0very bad. For four days the water stayed\u00a04m high, says Abdul Saboor Khan. Out of 1700 houses, 400 were totally destroyed. Most of the others\u00a0are damaged. He is glad that Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and\u00a0its local partners are supporting the villagers. The need\u00a0for help is immense, judging by\u00a0the extent of destruction.<\/p>\n
By Rainer Lang, DKH-ACT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Water rose a meter a minute, said Nazer is sitting in front of his tent, his face like a mask of stone. The 50 year old father of four still cannot believe what happened. Within just four or five minutes, the flood levels\u00a0in his village in northwest Pakistan rose up to four metres. The young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5339],"tags":[1097,56,143,1412,14665],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pakistan","tag-disaster","tag-elca","tag-flood","tag-megan","tag-pakistan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n