PAKISTAN: Floods cause extensive damage in southern Punjab

ISLAMABAD, 22 July 2005 (IRIN) - A second massive surge of water into the River Indus over recent days has caused extensive damage to houses and fields while passing through the southern belt of Pakistan's Punjab province. At least 29 people have died, while over 452,000 were reported affected in more than 1,050 villages and small settlements across 14 flood-hit districts of Punjab since rivers started swelling in early July, according to a statement by the central Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) in the capital, Islamabad. "Flood situation is serious in parts of the districts Leyyah and Rajanpur located along River Indus. The same areas were affected by previous surges of floodwater in early July in the district Leyyah, where we are providing emergency relief supplies including both food and non-food items," Umair Hasan, coordinating the humanitarian assistance programme of UK-based charity Oxfam said in Islamabad. Around 290 flood relief centres have been established by the district relief authorities in their respective flood-hit areas, where free food and fodder for livestock is being provided to flood-affected people, indicated the latest flood situation report from the Punjab relief cell. In Punjab, farming communities in areas close to the Indus have been worst hit by floods in five southern districts: Leyyah, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzzafargarh and Rahim Yar Khan. An estimated 150,000 people along the Indus has been left in need of emergency supplies, according to humanitarian activists