Pakistan rushes to protect key power plant as flood threat rises | Pakistan

Authorities in Pakistan are scrambling to protect a vital power plant that supplies electricity to millions of people from a growing threat of flooding, officials said.

Flooding from record monsoon rains and melting ice in the mountainous north has affected 33 million people and killed nearly 1,400, washing away homes, roads, railways, livestock and crops with damage estimated at $30 billion.

Both the government and UN Secretary-General António Guterres have blamed climate change for the extreme weather that led to the floods that submerged vast areas of the nation of 220 million.

The power station in the Dadu district of the southern province of Sindh, one of the country’s hardest-hit areas, supplies six provincial districts with electricity.

Troops were busy reinforcing a dike built in front of the station, a visit to the site on Sunday showed.

“All precautionary measures have already been taken to save the grid in case of flooding,” Syed Murtaza Ali Shah, a top district official, told Reuters on Monday.

The comment followed orders from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, reported by state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, to ensure that the 500 kV power plant was not flooded.

On Monday, a dust storm in the nearby city of Sehwan uprooted hundreds of tents pitched by roadsides by people made homeless by the floods as another downpour expected in the middle of the month begins to set in, officials said.

“If the rain comes, where would we go – we are sitting under the open sky, we don’t know what to eat, what to cook,” Muhammad Hasan, one of those affected by the storm, told Reuters.

“All the tents were uprooted by strong winds today, we don’t know where to go. We are desperate.”

Pakistan’s meteorological department said Monday it expects more rain in the area in the next few days, posing a new threat to displaced people living in tents or in the open along elevated highways.

United Nations agencies have begun work to assess the South Asian nation’s rebuilding needs after it received 391 mm (15.4 inches) of rain, or nearly 190% more than the 30-year average, in July and August.

Sindh received 466% more rain than average and all the flood water passes through Dadu, a district with a population of 1.5 million due to its location.