7 hours ago
Pakistanis seek taller, drier land as floods continue
Pakistan is pleading with countries around the world for more international aid amid floods that have devastated the country, prompting people to search for higher and drier lands.
The number of people who died as a result of the monsoon rains reached 1,033, including 119 people in the past 24 hours, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
Officials said the United States, Britain and the UAE had responded to the disaster appeal, but more aid was still urgently needed.
They added that the Pakistani government is doing its best to help the people amid the exacerbation of the current natural disaster sweeping the country.
Salman Sofi, a Pakistani interior ministry official, told the BBC that the country was in dire need of international support.
“Pakistan was suffering from economic problems, but as soon as I got close to overcoming them, the monsoon rains hit it,” he added.
He stressed that the funds for development projects were directed to those affected by the floods.
Citizens in northwest Pakistan were forced to leave their homes following rivers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province overflowed their banks and overflowed everywhere, causing a massive flood.
photo released, Getty Images
Flood-affected people wait for aid in Karachi province
“The house we built following years of hard work, we saw it sink before our eyes,” Junaid Khan, 23, who lives in one of the affected areas, told AFP.
“We sat on the side of the road and watched our dream house sink,” he added.
Sindh province in southeast Pakistan was also badly affected by the floods, which led to thousands of people fleeing their homes.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that 33 million people have been affected by the floods, which is an estimated 15 percent of the country’s population.
He suggested that the losses resulting from these floods may reach the levels of losses left by the 2010-2011 floods, making them the worst ever.
Officials in Pakistan believe that climate change is the reason behind these severe floods.
But some believe that the poor level of planning by local governments was the main reason behind the exacerbation of the damage caused by that natural disaster, as buildings were being built in areas most at risk of seasonal flooding.
