Flood-hit areas of Gwadar may face a shortage of food and other daily supplies if a damaged road link to the area is not repaired in the next couple of days, officials told IRIN, an information unit of United Nations. "At present, restoration of communication links particularly the road network is one of the main concerns of our administration," crisis management cell (CMC) head Raziq Bugti said on telephone from Quetta.
"Besides creating problems for local people, it is also hampering relief efforts as we are relying only on helicopters for the provision of supplies," he added.
"Vehicular traffic to the flood-affected areas in the south is totally suspended for over a week due to damaged road network and bridges on the rivers, which is causing a shortage of food and other supplies into the markets," a local resident Wahab Ishaq from the worst hit town of Pasni told IRIN.
One of the main water reservoirs, Shadi Khore dam, collapsed on Thursday last in Pasni, while another three smaller dams burst in adjoining districts over the next two days, resulting in heavy flooding.
Meanwhile, the northern districts of Balochistan, Chaman, Pishin and Qilla Abdullah have received a record heavy snowfall of up to four to five feet this year, meteorologists report.
"Normally these areas receive an average of about three-feet of snowfall in a season. However, the area has been facing a severe drought in the last five years," Muhammad Hanif from the national meteorological department told IRIN in Islamabad.
"As many as 11 helicopters have been participating in the rescue and relief operation along the coastal belt. And since yesterday two helicopters have been employed in the northern districts of Pishin and Chaman to rescue some 2,500 people stranded there," Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Major General Shaukat Sultan said.
"C-130 aircraft are being used to airlift relief supplies from Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta," Bugti said, adding about 150 patients had also been shifted to Karachi through those aircraft.