Pakistan floods ‘could leave millions in poverty’
LOSS OF JOBS, HARVESTS AND HOUSES WILL WORSEN SITUATION, SAYS WORLD BANK
BETWEEN six and nine million Pakistanis are set to be dragged into poverty as a result of cataclysmic monsoon flooding linked to climate change, the World Bank has said.
Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented rains this year, which killed 1,700, devastated two million homes, put a third of the nation under water and caused an estimated $28 billion (£25.2bn) in damages.
Eight million people remain displaced, living in ramshackle tent cities and scattered camps near the stagnant lakes which swallowed their belongings and livelihoods.
A World Bank report last Thursday (6) said Pakistan’s poverty rate is expected to rise between 2.5 and 4 percentage points as a direct consequence of the floods.
Loss of jobs, livestock, harvests, houses, and the closure of schools – as well as spread of disease and rising food costs – threaten to put between 5.8 and nine million in poverty, it said. “Reversing these negative socio-economic effects is likely to take considerable time,” it added.
Before the floods, southern Pakistan was already devastated by grinding poverty. Now aid only sporadically penetrates the patchwork swampland, while the true number of those in need has yet to even be discovered. In the nation of 220 million, some 20 per cent are already living below the poverty line, according to Asian Development Bank data.
Before the deluges began, Pakistan’s coffers were already in dire shape, with a costof-living crisis, a nose-diving rupee and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
The World Bank said inflation in the country is set to stand at 23 per cent for the financial year 2023.
Pakistan is responsible for less than one per cent of global greenhouse gasses, but places highly in rankings of nations vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change. Credible research says severe weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of manmade emissions.
Islamabad has called for richer and more industrialised nations with larger carbon footprints to contribute to the aid effort as a form of climate justice.
“We have no space to give our economy a stimulus package, which would create jobs, and provide people with the sustainable incomes they need,” climate change minister Sherry Rehman said last Tuesday (4).
“We are still in a long, relentless struggle to save lives.”
Sindh, the worst-hit by the catastrophic flooding, recorded 208,000 cases of malaria so far this year, a dramatic rise from 2021, when cases were reported. Left untreated – as it certainly is in the stranded swathes of Sindh – malaria can quickly turn fatal. In a normal year there are 50,000 deaths from malaria in Pakistan.