Heavy rains destroy capital slum dwellings

Heavy rains in the Pakistani capital Islamabad have destroyed hundreds of mud houses in slum areas, forcing people to move in with neighbours until the monsoon season ends when they can start rebuilding. "Our kitchen and bathroom have been washed away into the ditch next to our house," Arshad, owner of a mud house in the F6/2 sector of Islamabad, told IRIN. It was only last month that he had rebuilt his house, which consisted of one room, a makeshift bathroom and kitchen, following a storm. "The roof leaks all the time and we are always wet," he added. Arshad said his family were now having to cook and use the bathroom at a neighbour's home. The father of two had lived in the slum area for the past seven years and said that waste being thrown into the ditch was being carried into people's homes by the rain. Every other slum dweller complained of how the rain had damaged their houses. "Our room has been destroyed and we are now sharing a room with another family," mother of four, Riaz, told IRIN. "People don't know how much we suffer during this season," she said, explaining that most families lived in one room. "All we can do is wait until the rain stops so we can think about building another room," she said. "We have no electricity and no water supply so we have to bring water from the market," another slum dweller told IRIN. "The rich live in the next neighbourhood in their luxurious big homes and they just don't know what we go through every day." People living in the slum areas will continue to suffer for the next few weeks with very little respite from the rain, according to the meteorological office in Islamabad. Heavy rains in the capital and other parts of the country caused flash flooding over the weekend, with up to a metre of rainwater inside some houses. The district of Mardan in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP)was also lashed by heavy rains, weather experts said. "The rainfall in F6/2, Islamabad, was 82 mm in just half an hour, compared to 12 mm in other parts of the city," the director-general of the meteorological office in Islamabad, Qamar uz Zaman, told IRIN. "The rainfall was heavy in F6/2 due to the close proximity with the Margalla hills," he added. Explaining that the rains had already exceeded the average fall for August, he said the monsoon season was expected to run until 10 September. Bad news for home owners means good news for farmers though. Pointing out the benefits of the heavy rainfall, Qamar uz Zaman said: "Water availability is good in the dams as they have reached their full capacity," he said, adding that the water supply for the irrigation system was also very good. However, he said, the southern parts of the country, which had been suffering from severe drought, remained dry. "There has not been a single drop of rain in Sindh for the past three months."