Pakistan floods: 8 more districts added to the list of calamity-hit areas

Torrential rain has hit areas of northern Pakistan that had been unaffected, causing massive flooding, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said by phone Saturday.

Pakistan added another eight districts to its list of 80 calamity-hit areas as flash flooding in different regions of the country submerged villages and swamped agricultural lands.

Planes carrying fresh supplies are surging across a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll surged past 1,200. (AP)

Torrential rain has hit areas of northern Pakistan that had been unaffected, causing massive flooding, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said by phone Saturday.

“Things aren’t improving yet,” he said. “We are still in rescue and relief phase.”

The South Asian nation has reported its highest rainfall in three decades, with flooding that has inundated about a third of the nation. The extreme weather has killed more 1,200 people and cost the economy an estimated $10 billion.

The flooding has impacted 33 million people and damaged more than one million houses. Recovery in flood-wrecked areas could be a slow process because of problems draining the water, Iqbal said. “That’s a major issue because they are plains.”

Earlier this week, the United Nations and Pakistan jointly issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to help the millions of people affected by the floods, which have damaged over 1 million homes.

Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority in its latest report Saturday counted 57 more deaths from flood-affected areas. That brought the total death toll since monsoon rains began in mid-June to 1,265, including 441 children.

The United Nations’ World Health Organisation warned of spread of infectious disease including cholera and typhoid in affected regions.