Sherry Rehman, the minister for climate change, called the floods “unprecedented” and “the worst humanitarian disaster of this decade”. “Pakistan is going through the eighth cycle of monsoons, whereas normally the country has only three to four cycles of rain,” Rehman said. “The rates of flash floods are staggering.” He particularly emphasized the effects in the south of the country, adding that “maximum” relief efforts are underway. The NDMA, the Pakistan Army and the District Disaster Management Authority are working to help those affected — but there is a “dire” need for shelter and relief because of the growing number of homeless and displaced families, he said. The southern province of Sindh, which has been hit hard by the floods, has requested 1 million tents, while nearby Balochistan province has requested 100,000 tents, he added. “Pakistan’s priority, right now, is this humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions caused by the climate,” Rehman said, urging the international community to provide aid given Pakistan’s “limited” resources. Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters separately that 30 million people have been affected, a figure that would represent about 15 percent of the South Asian country’s population. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a briefing on Thursday that monsoon rains have affected an estimated 3 million people in Pakistan, of whom 184,000 have been displaced in relief camps across the country. Financing and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for cash-strapped Pakistan, which must cut spending to ensure the International Monetary Fund approves the release of much-needed bailout money. The NDMA said in a report that in the last 24 hours, 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) of roads were damaged across the country and more than 82,000 houses were partially or totally damaged. Since mid-June, when the monsoon began, more than 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of road, 130 bridges and 495,000 houses have been damaged, according to the NDMA’s latest status report, figures echoed in the OHCA report.
“The rain hasn’t stopped”
The vast majority of this damage is in Sindh. “Brother, the rain has not stopped for the last three months… We are living in a rickshaw with our children because the roof of our mud house is leaking,” a woman who declined to be named told Reuters TV in Hyderabad, Sindh. second largest city. Sitting with three of her children in the rickshaw she said: “Where can we go? The gutters are overflowing and our yard is filled with sewage. Our houses and alleys have turned into a floating garbage can.” OCHA also warned that warnings of floods, river overflows and landslides had been issued in several parts of Pakistan, while heavy rain was forecast for the next two days in most of the country. Rehman said that Sindh has received 784% more rainfall this month than the August average, while Balochistan province had received almost 500% more rainfall. Twenty-three districts of Sindh have been declared disaster-hit, he said.
