Thatta: Historic city in south Pakistan saved from floods

Thousands of people streamed back to this historic southern city Monday where new levees hastily built from clay and stone held back floodwaters that have inundated much of Pakistan.

Thousands who fled the waters that inundated neighboring towns complained about the shortage of food and water as they camped in a vast Muslim graveyard on a hill near Thatta city.
Hordes of people ran after vehicles distributing food and water near the graveyard, a chaotic effort that left many flood survivors — especially the old and infirm — with nothing. Some drank rainwater pooled on the ground.

Authorities said they were trying to provide food and shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people camped out on the hill in Makli. But as in other areas of the country, the scale of the disaster has overwhelmed both local capacity and the international partners trying to help.

The floods started about a month ago in the northwest after extremely heavy monsoon rains and have slowly surged south along the Indus River, devastating towns and farmland. More than 1,600 people have died and 17 million more affected by the floods.
Authorities struggled to save Thatta on Sunday, building new levees with clay and stone across a major road to hold back floodwaters that inundated the nearby town of Sujawal. Many of Sujawal's 250,000 residents had already fled, but the water damaged houses, schools and other buildings in the town.
Most of Thatta's 350,000 residents had also fled in recent days but began to return to the city as the danger passed.

Pakistan to import 1 million cotton bales from India

Pakistani spinners have finalised deals with Indian exporters for import of one million bales of cotton since cotton crop has been extensively damaged in the floods that ravaged the country.

The crop losses in Pakistan have led to concerns about a possible steep rise in global cotton and apparel prices as the world cotton supplies are feared to lag far behind the consumption demand.

Domestic cotton prices in India were also expected to increase because of the import orders from Pakistan as it is a worldwide phenomenon and prices are likely to stay upwards because of the global shortages.