Schools closed for two more days as rain emergency declared across Sindh
The Sindh education department on Thursday announced that all private and government schools and colleges in the province will remain closed for two more days on Friday (Aug 26) and Saturday (Aug 27) due to the current flood situation and rain emergency
In a statement, Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah said that several districts in the province were facing floods because of which most of the schools and colleges had been submerged with rainwater.
“The same have also been turned into relief camps for the flood affectees,” he said, adding that in that view it had been decided to keep educational institutions closed.
Earlier this week, the government had closed schools and colleges on Aug 24 and Aug 25 after heavy rains and floods wreaked havoc in the province.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in the last 24 hours, 13 people lost their lives across Sindh, while 40 were injured. The death toll in the province from torrential rains that started in June has now crossed 300.
In its fresh report issued today, the NDMA said that roads spread over 46.5km and 15 bridges had been destroyed in the floods, while the train track between Laki Shah Sharif and Sehwan Sharif had been blocked.
In the last 24 hours, the highest rainfall was recorded in Sakrand (220mm), followed by Shaheed Benazirabad (137mm), Larkana (130mm) and Mohenjodaro (116mm), it added.
Separately, in a meeting today, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah decided to constitute district-level committees comprising the relevant deputy commissioner, representatives from V Corps, engineering corps, local government, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and local representatives, to start relief, rescue, survey and damages assessment.
“The purpose is to reach to the affected families and support them in a transparent, proper, and decent way,” he said, adding that the committees would also procure all the required materials and goods, tents, mosquito nets, food items, medicines, machinery and other items.
More rains
Meanwhile, in its fresh advisory, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that widespread thunderstorms/rains of heavy to very heavy intensity with extremely heavy falls at isolated places was expected in Sindh, eastern Balochistan and Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan divisions.
“Scattered to widespread thunderstorm/rain of moderate to heavy intensity with isolated very heavy falls is expected over the upper catchments of rivers Kabul and Indus.”
The Met office has predicted scattered thunderstorm/rain of moderate intensity over the upper catchments of river Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej, and in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Kohat and Bannu divisions.
These rains, it added, would last till Aug 26 after which the monsoon system would weaken.