'We've gone back 50 years': Pakistan farmers count flood damage
Pakistani farmers are still affected by massive floods that have inundated a third of the country, but the long-term effects are already clear. "We are 50 years behind the times," said Ashraf Ali Bhanbro, a farmer in Sindh province, who is expected to harvest 2,500 hectares of cotton and sugarcane. Flooding from record monsoon rains has affected more than 33 million people, with one of the worst-hit areas being Sindh in southern Pakistan. The province is divided by the mighty Indus River, where agriculture has flourished along its banks for thousands of years, with irrigation systems dating back to 4000 BC. Sindh's problem is twofold. The province has been drenched with record rainfall locally, but this water has nowhere to go as the Indus islands are already swollen by rivers north of it to their maximum capacity and flooded by riverbanks in several places. "There was one time when it rained continuously for 72 hours," Bhanbro said. He added that he lost at le