Hawk_eye

Rescue efforts are under way after a dam burst in heavy rain in south-western Pakistan, killing at least 70 people.
About five villages were completely washed away and many houses collapsed after the dam burst near Pasni.

Officials in Balochistan province said up to 30,000 people had been affected - and they expect the death toll to rise.

Across the country, 50 more people have died in mudslides and house collapses caused by two weeks of rain and snow.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have both expressed deep sorrow over the deaths across Pakistan.

Helicopter drops

Officials in Balochistan said the villages were swept away when rains breached the Shadikor dam near Pasni, 650km (400 miles) from the provincial capital, Quetta.

About 3,000 personnel from the army, navy, coastguard and civil emergency organisations have been called in for the rescue operation, amid fears the casualty figures could rise significantly.



Continued rain has hampered the search for survivors, provincial cabinet minister Sher Jan Baluch said.

Many people have moved to higher ground or are standing on roofs waiting for help.

Helicopters delivering food, medicine and tents have been dropping supplies from the air in places where they cannot land.

They have ferried about 1,000 people to safety.

However, one Baloch opposition leader, Kachkol Ali, said he believed 700 people were still missing.


Some cars, trucks and buses were swept into the Arabian Sea by the flood water as they drove along a newly built highway in the Pasni region.

The rains have also washed away several bridges and part of a main road linking Pakistan's southern coast to the main cities.



"I have seen 15 bodies myself," local resident Abdul Razzaq told the AFP news agency by telephone from the area.

Meteorological experts said some parts of Pakistan had received the heaviest rain and snow in seven years, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The BBC's Paul Anderson in Islamabad says that for years Balochistan has seen nothing like this year's rains. It is a parched province that always faces near-drought.

Two more people were killed and 18 reported missing when flood waters overturned their bus elsewhere in Balochistan, officials told AP.

In Terrah, a tribal region in north-western Pakistan, the army was continuing to search for 30 soldiers missing after an avalanche.

Officials in the Himalayan town of Gilgit said the Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan with China had been blocked by landslides at several points, while two men were killed by an avalanche.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4259185.stm

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Rahul

Hope they can rescue as many people as possible.

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Karthik

Wasn't this dam built very recently, as early as two years ago?

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Hawk_eye

Yes thats whats so suprising, it was built two years ago to help collect water for irrigation, due to balochistan suffering from heavy drought. But the ammount of rain and snow has proved too great for containment.

The president was visitng the sites affected, relief efforts are underway and form what i have heard there is going to be a big investigation as how this happened, considering the age of the dam, but i belive this is just another act of god...

Hundreds of people are still thought to be missing and although several have been recovered it is fared that some might have been swept out to sea.

Karthik

Sad. I have this bad feeling that these abnormal climatic deviations have just started , and will continue to swallow more people and result in more misery as time proceeds.

Ray

Very unfortunate.

I think we also had many years agao a dam bursting in Gujerat.

Unnecessary lives lost. Likewise, in Pakistan.

Sad.

Aryan

One of the unfortunate effects of global warning.

Ray

Try telling that to the Balochis.

They will warm people elsewhere.

The dam should have held.

As a common man I say someone will be hung for this.....or so one can hope.

JJ Rambo would have attributed to the wrath of God!

Hawk_eye

An Investigation is underway and rest assured that the contractors will be held liable for why this perfectly new dam gave way so quicly! But one factor that has to be accounted for is the fact that:

Meteorological experts said some parts of Pakistan had received the heaviest rain in sixteen and snow in seven years.

Heavy rain is expected to continue for at least the next two days.
-BBC
Peoples Daily Online





Another important thing to note is that:
The 25-metre-high (83-foot), 147-metre-long dam was built in 2003 at a cost of 45 million rupees (759,000 dollars) and used for irrigation. It was full when it burst, the minister said.

Weather officials said this week that the length of the rainy spell, which began on February 3, appeared to be a record for Pakistan and showed no sign of letting up.

However a relief operation is in full swing. My heart goes out to all who have lost their lives in this terribe act.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - Rescuers are scouring remote southwestern Pakistan for survivors after a huge dam burst, killing 80 people with hundreds more feared dead.

Operations were also under way to help tens of thousands of people either trapped or left homeless by the water that escaped from the dam in southwestern Baluchistan province late Thursday, washing away entire villages.

"Over the past two days we have recovered 80 bodies around the coastal town of Pasni after the breach of Shadi Kor dam, and hundreds of people are still trapped in the flood waters," Baluchistan minister for coastal areas Sher Jan told AFP.

The rise in the death toll, which officials put at 60 on Friday, took the total fatalities in Pakistan after week-long heavy rains and snow to more than 140, including more than 30 in the snow-covered northwest.

Officials said Friday that hundreds of people were feared missing after the Shadi Kor dam burst.

"Some 20 villages have been inundated, but we do not have exact estimates of how many people have died or how many are trapped because the communication system in the region has completely collapsed," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP Saturday.

"The death toll could rise," he said.

Troops used boats to reach marooned villagers and helicopters dropped relief supplies, Cheema said.

Two C-130 planes carrying food, medicines, tents and blankets left the capital Islamabad on Saturday, he said.

"People are sitting on the roof tops of their homes and we are providing them food," Khawaja Siddiq Akbar, special secretary to the provincial chief minister, said Friday.

Sher Jan, the provincial minister, told a news conference late Friday that around 25,000 to 30,000 people in 35 villages were left homeless in the disaster zone, which is about 600 kilometres (372 miles) from the provincial capital Quetta.

Many others lost crops and cattle, he said.

Using helicopters and boats, the army and navy had rescued 2,000 people in the worst-hit villages of Sindhi Puso, Turati, Kurki, Zar Khor and Sharnu Bazar, he said.

Officials said rescue efforts were being hampered because floodwater also wiped out 40 kilometres of the coastal highway as well as a number of bridges and some minor roads.

A 120-kilometre stretch of coastal highway had been submerged and authorities had opened another highway to divert traffic, they said.

Source: Turkish Press

lemontree

Corruption - the contractors have to give kickbacks to the govt officials for the contract.These guys have to earn their profit, so they use substandard material.
Contracts carry out this form of cheating especially while building roads. If an inch or two is reduced in the width of the road, the amount of money saved for miles of the road being constructed is enormous.
It happens in India too (not with dams though).

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ajaybhutani

well is it due to the use of substandard material or somethin like ill planning about how much water capacity is needed.

bull

i never knew that dam bursting has anthing to do with global warming.Anyways thanks for the info.

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ajaybhutani

bull,
its well known that the rivers originating from himalyas have increased in the water flow due to ice melting from the glaciers . Since indus and other rivers coming into pakistn have origins from himalyas or tibet(which is again quite near to it ) The water flow has increased considerably in these rivers . And so higher forces on dams.

Hawk_eye

Well said, although ajaybhutani raises a good point!

bull

So bcoz of all that a dam which is just 2 years old collapses which is located way down and dams which are on other rivers orginating from himalayas stand even after 30-40 years!!!