QUETTA, Feb 13: The situation in the flood-affected areas of Balochistan worsened on Sunday as a fresh spell of heavy rain lashed the province, sending all seasonal rivers in medium to high floods and hampering relief operation.

Telephone or road communication remained suspended with affected areas, including Pasni, Suntesar and parts of Makran and Lasbela districts and most parts of the region were facing shortage of power and clean drinking water with the power and water supply system severely damaged by the flood.

The situation is extremely serious in Suntesar where dozens of villages and human settlements are still under water. The Dasht River and its tributaries of Nihing and Kech Kaur are swollen with flood water.

People of the affected areas are facing a severe shortage of food items, especially of milk for children. Relief operation was in progress but heavy rainfall which resumed on Sunday was hampering the work as helicopters could not take relief goods that had reached Gwadar.

Two more C-130 planes carrying tents, blankets, warm clothes and foodstuff landed at the Gwadar airport. Reports of heavy rains have been received also from Chagai, Nushki, Kharan, Mastung, Khuzdar, Kalat, besides the districts of Awaran, Lasbela, Gwadar and Kech.

Two federal ministers, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, came to Gwadar and visited flood-affected areas of Pasni and Suntesar where they distributed relief goods.

According to reports reaching here, dozens of villages have been inundated, while several hundred houses have either been washed away or badly damaged. About 40,000 people have been displaced in Makran district and other areas.

However, no casualties were reported on Sunday from any area, official sources said and added that most of the missing people had been rescued by military personnel and rescue workers engaged in relief operation.

About 50 villages were inundated by the bursting of the Chalvi and Gawar Bagh dams in Pasni tehsil and Turbat district and breeches in Gaggo dam in Lasbela district, forcing villagers to take refuge on nearby hills. Earlier, they were reported missing.

Army and navy helicopters launched a massive search operation in the areas and shifted the marooned people to safe places, the sources said. However, a large number of people are still missing in some areas. The sources did not give the number of missing people.

Reports say that most of the major seasonal rivers are in high flood, with Hingol recording a discharge of more than 0.3 million cusecs. A bridge on the river has been badly damaged.

"Flood water is standing three to four metres above the bridge over the Hingol river, eroding its sides by 300 to 400 feet," an eyewitness said. The Gugu dam downstream of the Hingol river was swept away in the fresh rain, the sources confirmed.

The major towns of Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar and Jiwani along the Balochistan coast remain completely cut off from other parts of the country, except for the air link established to rush relief supplies.

Vehicular traffic between Karachi and Gwadar through the Coastal Highway remains suspended and if the bridge over the Hingol river collapses or is washed away, communication between Karachi and Gwadar will suffer a serious setback. Hingol is the biggest seasonal river of Balochistan with a catchment area of more than 2,500 miles, starting from central Balochistan to Ormara.

OVER 350 DEAD, 2,000 MISSING