The toll since June has reached 1,033 with 119 people losing their lives in the last 24 hours, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Sunday. It warned of “very high” level flooding in some areas along the Kabul and Indus rivers, particularly Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and Kalabagh and Chashma in Punjab province. Large parts of the country remain submerged – particularly Balochistan, KP and Sindh provinces in the south – as heavy rains continue to lash parts of the country. At least 347 people lost their lives in Sindh followed by Balochistan (238) and KP (226). The annual monsoon is essential to irrigate crops and replenish lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year also brings a wave of destruction. This year, rainfall in some areas was 600 percent higher than average. Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and the country’s top climate official, said in a video posted on Twitter that Pakistan was experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the worst in a decade.” “We are currently at ground zero of the extreme weather frontline, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, floods and now the monster monsoon of the decade wreaking no-Stop havoc across the country,” he said. Officials say this year’s devastating floods have affected more than 33 million people – one in seven Pakistanis – destroying crops, livestock and nearly a million homes. The NDMA said more than 809,000 hectares (two million acres) of cultivated crops have disappeared, 3,451 kilometers (2,150 miles) of roads have been destroyed and 149 bridges have been washed away. Khaista Rehman, 55, no relation to the climate minister, took shelter with his wife and three children on the side of the Islamabad-Peshawar highway after his house in Charsadda was submerged overnight. “Thank God we are safe now on this road well above the flooded area,” he said. “Our crops are gone and our house is destroyed, but I am grateful to Allah that we are alive and I will start life again with my sons.”
Cold water
The government has declared the devastating floods a “national emergency” and is appealing for help from friendly countries. “We are seeing complete devastation – hundreds of thousands of houses collapsed, more than a thousand people injured. It is clear that this is a huge humanitarian and climate emergency,” said Khuram Gondal, Save the Children country director. Reporting from Charsadda district in northern Pakistan, Al Jazeera’s Kama Hyder said rescue efforts were further complicated by “frigid” water temperatures, with much of the flooding coming from mountainous areas. “The water is gushing up and flooding the villagers and that is of course a serious threat,” he said. “There is widespread damage to property… People are taking shelter under plastic sheets on top of poles. They told us that they have been receiving help from the local population who are bringing them food and water. However, they say they are in dire need of tents and tarpaulins.” 🚨Flooding in Pakistan: – 30 million people displaced.– 300+ children among 1000 dead. – 1343 injured. – 500,000 houses damaged.– 800,000 animals dead. #PakistanFloods pic.twitter.com/YC57IxjfUQ — Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 27, 2022
25% under water
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif postponed an official trip to the UK as he appealed for resources from friendly countries and international institutions. Sharif visited flood victims in Jafferabad city in Balochistan on Sunday. He vowed that the government would provide shelter to all those who lost their homes. Sharif on Saturday delivered relief supplies to those affected in the flood-hit Sindh province. He was seen dropping relief packages from a helicopter to the people below. Earlier on Saturday, the prime minister surveyed damage across the province and met with evacuees in a relief camp. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – among other leaders – spoke to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about the grim flood situation. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his support for Pakistan. “France is ready to help,” he said in that tweet. The Qatar Red Crescent announced on Saturday the allocation of $100,000 for flood victims. Climate Minister Rehman told Turkish news agency TRT World that by the time the rains recede, “we could very well have a quarter or a third of Pakistan under water.” “This is something that is a global crisis and of course we will need better planning and sustainable development on the ground… We will need to have climate resilient crops as well as structures,” he said.
