Disasters & Accidents

Heavy rains damage Pakistan’s world heritage site

Islamabad, Sep 7 (EFE).- The ruins of Mohenjo Daro, an ancient city founded over 4,500 years ago as part of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, have been damaged by the floods and heavy rains that have affected Pakistan since mid-June, killing over 1,300 people as authorities struggle to distribute aid.

“As per our initial estimates 70 percent of the ruins of Mohenjo Daro have been damaged,” Tariq Manzoor Chandio, the deputy commissioner of the Larkana district where the UNESCO World Heritage site is situated, told EFE on Wednesday.

Mohejo Daro, literally “mound of the dead,” is situated close to the Indus river and is among the most important archaeological sites of South Asia. It was rediscovered in the 1920s.

Chandio said that the ruins have not been directly flooded by the overflowing Kabul, Swat and Indus rivers, but heavy rains in the province had caused significant damage and “several walls had fallen partially.”

He added that work was on to repair the damage, at least partially.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the country needed billions of dollars to recover from its worst floods in a decade, with authorities struggling to distribute aid to over 33 million affected people.

“The country is facing an unprecedented situation with floods that have resulted in the loss of lives, infrastructure and crops,” Sharif said in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where he had arrived to assess the damage.

According to the national disaster management authority, at least 1,343 people have been killed by the floods since June, as Pakistan witnessed its most severe rains and floods in 30 years.

After lashing the country’s north and leaving entire regions flooded and ravaged, heavy rains are now expected in the southeastern Sindh province, weather authorities warned on Wednesday.

However, provincial government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said that waters in the Manchar lake – the largest reservoir in the country – have begun to descend after overflows destroyed thousands of houses and displaced nearly 100,000 people.

“As the water is now going down in the lake, in the next few days the water level in different districts will start going down,” Wahab told reporters. EFE

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