Islamabad September 10, : After several weeks of heavy monsoon rain, Pakistans largest freshwater lake began to overflow in the middle of September which put thousands of people at risk of losing their homes, as new satellite images revealed.The images, taken by NASA’s Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites, show cracks in the banks of Manchhar Lake, some of which were created deliberately by local authorities in order to stop the lake from spilling over into densely urbanized regions in the Indus River Valley, Geo News reported.
The photos show the pre-flood conditions on the 25th of July.The images then show the increasing magnitude of the flooding between August 28 and 5 September.
A total of 100,000 people living in hundreds of villages scattered throughout the valley are in danger of flooding because of the cracks in the ground, NASA officials wrote in an announcement, Geo News reported.
The floods, which are described as Pakistan’s most devastating in at least 10 years in at least a decade, have killed more than 1,300 people and injured a number of thousands.
More than one million houses have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people are currently being forced to relocate.
Sindh which is the area where Lake Manchhar is located, is one of the areas that has been most badly affected by the floods.
The region has already received five times the average annual rainfall in the past year, NASA said in the statement.
More rain is expected in the next few days, according the UK forecaster for weather Met Office.
The government declared an emergency for the entire country on August 30 requesting international help to distribute food as well as drinking water, health supplies, and aid to the communities affected.
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