More than 800 people have died since June in Pakistan because of heavy monsoon rains, a “disaster of a rare magnitude”, according to the Minister of Climate Change who will appeal for international aid.
The monsoon, which usually lasts from June to September, is essential for the irrigation of plantations and to replenish the water resources of the Indian subcontinent. But it also brings its share of drama and destruction each year.
Heavy rains have hit much of the country again in the past 24 hours, killing at least a dozen people, including nine children, authorities said.
“It’s been raining for a month. We have nothing left,” Khanzadi, a resident of Jaffarabad, in Balochistan province, one of the hardest hit, told AFP.
“We only had one goat, she too drowned in the floods. Now we have nothing with us…and we are hungry,” she added.
The government will appeal for international assistance once the damage assessment is complete, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday.
“Given the scale of the disaster, there is no question that the provinces, or even Islamabad, will face the scale of this climate catastrophe alone,” she told AFP.
“Lives are in danger, thousands of people homeless (…) It is important that international partners mobilize their help”, she added.
Very vulnerable country
Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change. It is in 8th position of the countries most threatened by extreme weather phenomena, according to a study by the NGO Germanwatch.
Earlier this year, much of the country was in the grip of a heat wave, with up to 51 degrees Celsius recorded in Jacobabad, Sindh province.
This city is now affected by floods which have damaged houses, washed away roads and bridges and destroyed crops.
In Sukkur, about 75 kilometers from Jacobabad, volunteers were using boats along flooded city streets to distribute food and fresh water to people trapped in their homes.
The rains this year are the worst since those of 2010 which left more than 2,000 dead and more than two million displaced, Zaheer Ahmad Babar, chief forecaster of the Pakistan Meteorological Service (PMD), told AFP.
In Balochistan province, rainfall was 430 percent above normal and nearly 500 percent in Sindh, he said.
The city of Padidan, in Sindh, has received more than a meter of rain since August 1.
“This is a climatic disaster of a rare magnitude,” said Ms. Rehman, adding that three million people had been affected.
Nearly 125,000 homes were destroyed and another 288,000 damaged, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement.
In Sindh and Balochistan, some 700,000 head of cattle have been killed and more than 80,000 hectares of farmland destroyed, officials say.
Nearly 3000 km of roads were also damaged.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp