Raging floods threaten Pakistan’s archeological treasure

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan could lose its archaeological treasure, which includes remnants of the thousands-year-old Mohenjo Daro and Mahargarh civilizations, to the floods that have inundated a third of the country.

Mohenjo Daro, located in the Larkana district of the southern Sindh province, has been hit particularly hard by the country’s most destructive monsoon spells and floods in recent history.

The floodwaters surrounding the 5,000-year-old iconic site have damaged several excavated portions, with water seeping through and creating furrows.

Apart from Mohenjo Daro, Sindh is strewn with heritage sites, only a few of which have been spared by the ravaging floods.

According to Hamid Akhund, secretary general of the Endowment Fund Trust, a semi-government organization involved in the preservation of heritage sites in Sindh, not a single heritage property survives intact outside of Karachi.

“The damage is massive due to the Biblical proportions (of the flood). A similar flood, I believe, decimated Mohenjo Daro thousands of years ago,” Akhund told Anadolu Agency.

Furthermore, major damage to the archaeological treasure has occurred in the southern Balochistan province, which is home to several archaeological sites over 5,000 years old, as a result of weeks-long torrential rains and floods.

Archaeologists consider restoring damaged heritage sites to be an “uphill task.”

“There is no doubt that this is an uphill task. “The government must take this seriously,” said Akhund, a former secretary of Sindh’s Culture and Heritage Department.