Pakistan flood-hit districts declared 'calamity area'

BBC: The Pakistani province of Sindh has declared five flood-hit districts to be "calamity areas" - short of food, housing and medical supplies. Officials say that at least five million people have been affected by floods across the country, with thousands forced to vacate their homes.

Thousands of rice, cotton and sugar cane crops have been destroyed. Heavy rainfall is continuing on Tuesday.…The provincial government says that the districts of Nawabshah - the home of President Zardari - and the districts of Badin, Tandoallahyar, Sakrand and Ghotki have been especially badly hit.

The BBC's Hafeez Chachar in Islamabad recently visited Sakrand and Ghotki and says that the situation in these areas is increasingly desperate, with displaced people searching for somewhere to camp on higher ground and shortages of food and medical supplies becoming ever more apparent.

Our correspondent says that while the flooding so far has only seriously affected five out of 22 districts in Sindh, for those caught up in the flooding the situation is ominously comparable to the floods of 2010, which destroyed more than 1.5 million homes across Pakistan and cost an estimated $10bn in direct and indirect losses. ..