TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN, Pakistan, Sept 12, (Agencies): Pakistan’s cash-strapped government, struggling to help victims of last year’s devastating floods, faces another major test as monsoon rains, which have already killed about 200 people in recent weeks, sweep across the south.
Flood waters across Sindh province have also destroyed or damaged nearly one million houses and flooded 4.2 million acres since late August , according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Prospects for further flooding would put Pakistan’s unpopular government, already battling Taliban militants, allegations of widespread corruption and public anger over power cuts and poverty, under immense pressure.
“The situation in Sindh is already serious and there will be more flooding and more problems because of these rains,” said meteorology department official Arif Mehmood.

Zafar Qadir, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, said Pakistan faced a crisis “of great magnitude”.

In the town of Tando Muhammad Khan, residents who watched water rise to about eight feet and rush through homes and shops feel helpless. Water has been stagnant for a week in some areas.
Some, like 15-year-old student Sonam, were so shaken they concluded conditions were worse than last year’s floods. “The entire blame goes on the government,” she said.

Pakistan’s military, which has ruled the country for more than half of its history, took charge of rescue and relief operations during last year’s floods, while the government was seen as slow and ineffective. Still, more than a year later, over 800,000 families remain without permanent shelter, according to aid group Oxfam, and more than a million people need food assistance.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Monday began a drive to feed half a million people affected by torrential rains in Pakistan where a second year of flooding has killed more than 200, officials said.

The crisis came just weeks after aid agency Oxfam accused the government of failing to invest in prevention measures after floods last year hit 21 million people and cost the economy $10 billion in the country’s worst natural disaster.

The UN food agency said Monday it had started to provide emergency supplies to the first of half a million people, following a weekend appeal from Pakistan, which already relies on billions of dollars of international aid.

World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Amjad Jamal told AFP that the agency had provided food packages to more than 600 families in Badin, one of the worst affected districts of Sindh.
“This is the first UN food response after Pakistan’s government’s appeal. We will expand this program to half a million people in coming days,” he said.

China, Pakistan’s most trusted foreign ally, said it had pledged $4.7 million for urgent humanitarian assistance and its ambassador on Monday handed over a cheque worth $50,000 to the disaster management authority.

The authority said it was working to quantify “huge” losses with cash crops such as sugar cane, banana and cotton now under water.