By Matt Hirschler
LONDON (AlertNet) - There has been severe flooding around the world in 2010, with many regions experiencing the worst torrential rain and storms in a generation.
Here are details of three major current floods:
PAKISTAN
Flash and riverine floods caused by an unusually severe monsoon season have hit Punjab and Baluchistan provinces.
At least 50 people have been killed and around 50,000 are affected in the worst-hit district of Barkhan, officials said.
Pakistan's monsoon season runs between July and September, meaning that there is still potential for another month of severe rain.
The Meteorological Department predicted another monsoon at the end of July which could hamper relief efforts.
Local authorities say they worry inadequate assistance for now homeless people could aid disease to break out. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already reported four deaths from water-borne diseases in two places, with hundreds more cases in other affected districts, according to the United Nations.
IRIN, the U.N. news agency, says many people are sleeping in the open as they abandon their homes to move to higher ground.
The United Nations said in a humanitarian update that the WHO and Pakistan's Department of Health were coordinating the response.
Pakistan says it will give out 1200 tents, 800 blankets and 2400 plastic mats. It also says it has deployed teams that can meet food and health needs for the next three months.
Saudi Arabia has pledged $100 million, nearly half of which has been spent, the U.N. said. This will include 25,000 all-weather tents.
IRIN said many residents feared the relief effort was inadequate.
"The rain is continuing and water is surrounding houses. People are now really scared," resident Amjad Baloch told IRIN from Kohlu on 24 July. "It has been raining more or less continually for two days here. Very little is being done to help people, many of whom have lost homes."
SOUTHERN CHINA
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed and some 400 are missing after the worst torrential rain and storms in southern China in 30 years, according to state media and the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC).
In all 120 million people have had their lives disrupted in some way.
Flooding and landslides have been the biggest problem in the region since storms started in May, and the IFRC says that this is set to continue as China prepares to face the rest of the typhoon season.
Reports from local media in central China said another 37 people were killed and 19 reported missing after a 150-metre-long village bridge collapsed under the pressure of a flood-swollen river on July 24.
The IFRC says that the Chinese government estimates that over 7 million hectares of farmland and 645,000 houses have been destroyed by flooding.
"People have to cross their fields by boat to retrieve belongings from their homes", said Qinghui Gu, IFRC's disaster management coordinator. "Many were taken by surprise by the intensity and speed of the flooding."
State media reported on Wednesday that nearly 4 million have had their water supplies cut after over 1,000 barrels of explosive chemicals were washed, by flood water, into a major river.
IFRC say that the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the world, has protected many in southwest China from flooding (but not landslides) this year.
One of the dam's main purposes is to protect people against the yearly floods along the Yangtze plains.
However, a state-run paper on July 23 quoted officials as saying that the dam could not cope with flood waters rushing through it at more than 122,000 cubic metres a second. This year the speed of flood waters passing the dam peaked at 70,000 cubic metres a second, but future floods could be more severe as a result of climate change, it said.
China has responded to fears that this year's floods would be as destructive as the 1998 Yangtze floods, in which 4,000 people died, saying that it was now better prepared.
Last week the government issued warnings ahead of tropical storm Chanthu. The IFRC said these warnings meant people stayed inside and there were fewer casualties.
Meanwhile, the IFRC reports that the Red Cross is carrying out extensive relief work across affected provinces. The Red Cross has distributed emergency supplies such as tents, quilts, rice and drinking water in these areas.
SUDAN
Heavy rains hit many regions of the Sudan in July causing severe flooding that has displaced more than 10,000 people and killed at least 16, as well as destroying harvests and livestock, according to officials and charities working in the region.
On July 20 the United Nations reported that 13 people were killed and 11 were missing in one of the worst-hit areas, when floodwater swept down an empty river bed near Agig village in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state after a week of heavy rain.
The latest report on July 26 by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) says humanitarian teams had witnessed more severe flooding in Akobo Country that had killed two people and destroyed 133 households and five schools.
Aid agencies said in a report compiled by the World Food Programme (WFP) and others that there was an urgent need for tents, sleeping material, food and clean drinking water for those displaced by flooding.
The report also stated that roads needed better drainage and culverts for water to pass from one side to the other.
The report warned that the flooding could continue for several more weeks.
"It is expected that these floods will continue until early September based on the frequency of the rains," it predicted, "which means there will be more displacement and ruining of the harvest."
Despite the heavy rains the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that Sudan still faces the long-term threat of drought after a poor rainy season in 2009.
"The rainy season is cyclical and we don't know what the levels of rains are going to be. But the drought issue remains a long-term problem," an OCHA spokesman said.
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