All four provinces of the country have been affected by the unusually heavy rainfall, with over 30 million people affected. Flash floods washed away villages, crops and 800,000 livestock as soldiers and rescuers evacuated stranded residents to relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, many roads are impassable and there have been widespread power outages. Peter Ophoff, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Sky News: “The monsoon season should have stopped by the end of July. Now we are at the end of August and we still have very heavy rain. Many people believe that we have not yet reached a climax.” The death toll reached at least 1,061 people after new deaths were reported in several different provinces. Floods from the Swat River have hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where tens of thousands of people – particularly in Charsadda and Nowshehra districts – have been evacuated from their homes to camps in government buildings. About 180,000 people have been evacuated from villages in Charsadda and 150,000 in Nowshehra. Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s top climate official, said in a video on Twitter that her country was experiencing a “serious climate disaster, one of the worst in a decade.” He said: “We are currently at ground zero of the frontline of extreme weather, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, bushfires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, floods and now the monster monsoon of the decade. wreaks non-stop havoc across the country.” Image: Photo: AP Peter Ophoff also told Sky News: “The situation in Pakistan is tragic. We are experiencing the worst flooding in decades. “The biggest problem is access. We have about 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) of roads that have been destroyed, 160 bridges have been washed away.” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan needed financial aid to deal with “overwhelming” floods and many crops that provided livelihoods for much of the population had been wiped out. Image: Photo: AP The International Monetary Fund’s board will decide this week whether to release $1.2 billion as part of the seventh and eighth tranches of Pakistan’s bailout program, which it joined in 2019. He said: “Going forward, I would expect not just the IMF, but the international community and international organizations to really realize the level of devastation.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 1:03 Pakistan’s PM helps drop flood aid The government of Pakistan has sent soldiers to assist civil authorities in rescue and relief operations. Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the flood-affected areas of southern Sindh province to continue the relief work. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military said it had airlifted 22 tourists who were trapped in a valley in the country’s north.
