Rains add to Pakistan flood woes

Al-Jazeera.net: An estimated 13 million Pakistanis affected by the worst floods in the country's history are bracing for more misery as heavy rains further bloat rivers and streams. Experts have warned that the situation in the northwest of the country, already devastated by the disaster, is set to worsen over the next 24 hours as fresh rains further swelled the Kabul River.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people in the southern Sindh province were being evacuated from areas around the Indus river in anticipation of more flooding. The flooding has left more than 1,600 people dead and is the worst in Pakistan since 1929.

The United Nations said that disaster is "on a par" with the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, which killed about 73,000 people, in terms of the number of people needing assistance and damage to infrastructure. Swollen rivers are carrying a huge volume of water south, raising fears that further destruction lies ahead. One million people are in the process of evacuating from Sindh province.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the southern coastal city Karachi, said "we are seeing a number of preparations being made across Sindh province. So far 500,000 people have been evacuated. Nearly 250,000 homes have been destroyed across the provinces bordering Sindh. The floods are coming further south. Nobody knows whether the floodwaters will reach Karachi, but severe flood warnings have been issued."…