CHARSADDA, Pakistan — In the village of Drab Korona in northwest Pakistan, Sirajuddin returned to where his house had stood to salvage what he could. What he found was just a shallow muddy pool.
“This was our house,” the 30-year-old Sirajuddin, who goes by one name as is common in the region, said as he pointed to the puddle.
In northwest Pakistan, some villagers are returning home after the massive flooding only to find destruction and an absence of government help.
Meanwhile, floodwaters continued to surge Sunday in parts of the south, forcing thousands there to flee to higher ground.
The northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the first hit by the deluge created by monsoon rains at the end of July. The region, bordering Afghanistan, is also on the front line of the battle against the Pakistani Taliban.
Anger is growing at the lack of aid, a fury directed at the provincial government and the national administration, both run by secular, pro-Western political parties, raising fears that the crisis will build support for Islamist forces.
Kamran Rehman Khan, a senior official in the Charsadda administration, said the floods affected 74,000 families in the district, roughly 500,000 people, with 54,000 of those families now housed in schools or tents.
“The whole catastrophe is overwhelming,” said Khan. “Whatever we do is not enough.”
While the waters in the region have receded, removing the danger of drowning, left behind was the threat of disease and a population that’s homeless and hungry.
