Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 1,033 people, including 348 children, and injured 1,527 more in Pakistan since mid-June, officials said on Sunday.
The country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) added that 119 people had died and 71 were injured in the last 24 hours alone.
At least 33 million people were affected by the disaster, Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said on Thursday. She called the floods “unprecedented” and “the worst humanitarian disaster of this decade”.
“Pakistan is going through its eighth cycle of monsoons, whereas normally the country has only three to four cycles of rain,” said Sherry. “The percentages of super flood torrents are shocking.”
She particularly highlighted the impact on the south of the country, adding that “maximum” relief efforts are underway.
The army detachment has been authorized to help with relief and rescue operations in flood-hit areas, the country’s Interior Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The ministry said the troops would help Pakistan’s four provincial governments, including the worst-hit province of southwestern Balochistan.
The exact number of troops, as well as where and when they will be deployed, will be decided between the provinces and the government, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, flood relief centers are being established in various parts of the country to assist in collecting, transporting and distributing relief items to victims, the Pakistani Armed Forces said.
Army troops are also directing people to safer places, providing shelter, meals and medical care, the Armed Forces said.
The southern province of Sindh, which was badly hit by the floods, asked for 1 million tents, while neighboring Balochistan province — largely without electricity, gas and internet — requested 100,000 tents, Sherry said.
“Pakistan’s priority right now is this climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions,” Sherry said, urging the international community to provide aid given Pakistan’s “limited” resources.
On Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif briefed international diplomats on the crisis, saying his country – on the front lines of climate change despite a relatively small carbon footprint – must focus its rehabilitation on a larger scale. resilience to climate change.
Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal separately told Reuters that 30 million people were affected, a figure that would represent about 15% of the South Asian country’s population.
The United Nations Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Thursday that monsoon rains had affected an estimated 3 million people in Pakistan, of whom 184,000 were displaced to aid camps. humanitarian aid across the country.
The financing and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for a cash-strapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approves the release of much-needed bailout money.
The NDMA said in a report that in the last 24 hours, 150 kilometers of roads had been damaged across the country and more than 82,000 homes had been partially or fully damaged.
Since mid-June, when the monsoon began, more than 3,000 kilometers of road, 130 bridges and 495,000 homes have been damaged, according to the latest NDMA situation report, figures also echoed in the OHCA report.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
