Pakistan Flood Waters Recede, but Dangers Lurk

(Aug. 30) -- Water levels in flood-devastated Pakistan have begun to recede, emergency officials said today, but the danger of new overflows remains.

Levels are starting to drop as the flood waters that started pouring from the north along the Indus River about a month ago begin to reach the Arabian Sea, according to Hadi Baksh, an emergency official in the southern Sindh province.

"In the coming day, the towns and villages will be out of flood danger," he said, according to various media reports.

But Pakistan's meteorological department said the water levels in the southern Indus region "continue in exceptionally high flood level" and would remain so for another day.

One immediate effect of the receding levels early today was that the town of Thatta, about 75 miles from Karachi, was saved from possible destruction Sunday as a breach in defenses was plugged with clay and stones by emergency workers.

Thousands of people who had evacuated the city were able to return to their homes, The Associated Press reported, but the town of Sujawal on the other side of the Indus failed to escape the torrents of water and was submerged.

Most of the 100,000-plus population was safely evacuated, but Baksh was quoted by the BBC as saying, "We estimate that there are still 400 people in Sujawal and the surrounding villages, and they are being rescued by boats."

"There has not been a substantial relief, but things have improved," said the director general of the National Disaster Management Authority, Saleh Farooqi, Reuters reported. "Water is still flowing, but the speed and levels are reducing. It will take another four to five days for things to improve further."

Although millions of dollars in aid have been pledged by the U.S., Britain and other countries, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today that more international aid is needed to combat the country's potential instability.

"The danger of the floods extends beyond a very real humanitarian crisis," Kerry wrote in an editorial in The International Herald Tribune. "A stable and secure Pakistan, based on democracy and the rule of law, is in all of our interests.

"Pakistan has made enormous strides in combating extremism and terrorism -- at great sacrifice," he said, according to Reuters. "But its ability to keep the fight requires an effective response to this crisis."

Since the floods began in July, brought on by an unusually heavy monsoon season, about 17 million people have been affected. The government has confirmed more than 1,600 deaths and 2,366 injuries, but officials have warned that millions are at risk of disease and food shortages, Agence France-Presse reported.

The death toll is also expected to rise as the bodies of missing people are found, with huge areas of the country still inaccessible.

An ever-present danger is the spread of disease. U.N. officials warn that stagnant water pools and malnutrition put an estimated 72,000 children at risk of dying.

Damage to crops, with whole areas of farmland under water, is estimated by the U.N. World Food Program at about $3 billion, the BBC reported.