04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

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QUETTA, March 3: The death toll in different areas of Balochistan hit by rain and flood rose to 29 as reports of more casualties were received on Thursday, while many villages in the district of Gwadar were still flooded.

The road link between Gwadar and other parts of the country remained suspended with water flowing on the coastal highway near Sur Bunder. Flights between Karachi and Gwadar could not be restored because the runway of the airport remained flooded.

More houses collapsed in Mastung, Qila Abdullah, Duki and the border town Chaman claiming at least nine lives. "Five members of a family died in Mastung area when the roof of their house caved in," police said.

Although no rainfall was reported from the coastal region on Thursday, Sur Bunder, Nagur Sharif, Chip Kalmati and other villages were still inundated as more water flowed from the nearby reservoir which has been overflowing for three days because of the heavy rain in the catchment area of the Akra Kaur river.

Reports reaching from the Bulada area of the Turbat district of Makran said that all small dams, including Jantari Kaur and Rangan, were full to the brim and the local administration had declared emergency. Officials of the department concerned were keeping a close watch on the water level in the dams.

The administration has shifted local population to safe areas. A man and his son were killed and two others were injured in Reko area in a rain-related incident. The areas also received hailstorm which destroyed the standing wheat crop and affected the supply of drinking water.

A tragic incident took place in the village of Ganj Dori near Mastung where a man and his four children were killed when the roof of their house collapsed. His wife and two other children were seriously injured.

A woman, a three-year-old girl and two men were killed in the border towns of Chaman and Duki. The situation in Qila Abdullah and Pishin district deteriorated as rain continued.

"Around 400 houses were washed away or damaged in Qila Abdullah district," an official of the district administration said, adding that thousands of people had become homeless and they needed tents, blankets and foodstuff.

"We need 5000 tents, blankets and foodstuff immediately," Nazim Qila Abdullah district Salauddin Achakzai said. Meanwhile, army and navy personnel continued their rescue and relief operation and evacuated over 5,000 people from the flood- affected areas. Personnel of the Frontier Corps also launched a relief operation in the northern parts of Balochistan, providing blankets, tents and grains to people.

Official sources here said that the level of the Akra Kaur dam which had overflowed inundating many villages in the Gwadar district, was gradually reducing after water was released to save the dam from collapsing.

"Around 27,000 cusecs of water is passing through the spillway and emergency gates of the dam," a spokesman of the provincial Public Health Engineering Department said.

The sources said that because of heavy rain in the catchment area of the Akra Kuar river, the dam had received over 40,000 cusecs of water which endangered the dam as its spillway could release only 10,000 cusecs."

Emergency gates of the dam were opened to release another 17,000 cusecs to avert a Shadi Kuar dam like incident. "The structure of the dam is intact and excess water is passing through the spillway and emergency gates," the sources said.