Many villages submerged; Emergency imposed in Tank
Adam Khan Wazir Dera Ismail Khan
The continuous heavy rain since Tuesday night has wreaked havoc in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts, badly damaging roads and water channels. A large number of houses and shops have collapsed.
The district administration, PDMA, Department of Irrigation and TMA are not seen performing any relief activities, only Pak Army, FC jawans and rescue personnel are engaged in relief work.
The floods caused by rain have caused widespread destruction in Tank district and Dera Ismail Khan. There are also reports of walls collapsing in UC Sir Nagzona, Nurses, Kot Murtaza, Kot Nawaz, Kot Sangin, Kot Khadak, and UC Gomal in Tank district. From Gomalzam main road, the link roads of Nurses Burkiabad, Faqirabad and Betniabad have been washed away in the flood relay. The Sarabi water channel was also swept away by the flood.
Standing crops of sugarcane, rice, vegetables worth crores of rupees have been severely damaged leaving the landlords very worried. At Kot Sangin, shops were swept away by the flood, walls of dozens of houses were reported to have collapsed.
On one hand, there is a fear of crossing the Gomal Zam Dam water limits located in Gomal area of Wana tribal district of South Waziristan, and on the other hand, people are forced to drink dirty water from Zam Dam instead of clean water.
No facilities have been provided to the people by the district administration and other departments. Due to non-provision of funds by the provincial government, the district administration and other departments have failed to start their activities in this difficult time.
The people have critcised the PDM, an organization set up to deal with natural disasters, and said that the problems caused by the floods a few days ago have not been resolved yet, however, at the same time, cholera has raised its head in the region.
The Public circles have demanded immediate relief from the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan, IGFC South and Commissioner Dera Ismail Khan to improve the situation.
It should be noted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan recently visited the flood-affected districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan separately and announced relief funds, but thier announcements have not yet been materialised.
Now due to sudden torrential rains, more floods have caught people, causing losses of millions if not billions of rupees. On the other hand, in view of the threat of large-scale financial and economic losses due to floods, DC Tank Hameed Ullah Khattak issued a notification imposing an emergency across the district.
