After floods, Pakistan “looks like a sea,” says PM Shehbaz, and 18 more people pass away.
Following a visit to some of the districts affected by the floods, which have affected up to a third of Pakistan, where 18 more fatalities brought the total number of deaths from days of rain to 1,343, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated on Wednesday that parts of the country were “like a sea.”
A disaster blamed on climate change that has made hundreds of thousands homeless and resulted in losses of at least $10 billion, according to officials, has affected up to 33 million of a population of 220 million. “You wouldn’t believe the scale of destruction there,” PM Shehbaz told the media after a visit to the southern province of Sindh. As far as the eye could see, there was water; it like a sea.
The government will purchase 200,000 tents to shelter displaced people after increasing financial handouts for flood victims to 70 billion Pakistani rupees ($313.90 million).According to PM Shehbaz, receding waters pose a new threat in the form of water-borne infectious diseases.
“Trillions of rupees will be required to deal with this catastrophe.”$160 million has been requested in aid by the UN to support flood victims.A big portion of those impacted are from Sindh, where Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake is perilously near to bursting its banks even after being breached in an operation that forced 100,000 people to flee their homes.
According to national disaster officials, eight children were among the fatalities on the previous day.Record-breaking monsoon rains and glacier melt in Pakistan’s northern mountains were the causes of the floods.A senior UNHCR official has cautioned that with additional rain anticipated in the upcoming month, the situation could get worse.
The World Health Organization has already stated that more than 6.4 million people in the affected areas require humanitarian assistance.More than 2 million acres (809,370 hectares) of agriculture have been submerged by the rushing waters, which have also destroyed 750,000 head of livestock, 5,735 km (3,564 miles) of transportation infrastructure, and 1.6 million homes.In July and August, Pakistan received 391 mm (15.4 inches) more rain than the 30-year normal, with Sindh receiving 466% more rain than the usual.