Pakistan flood toll rises with 25 children among 57 more deaths

KARACHI, Pakistan, (Reuters) - The toll from cataclysmic floods in Pakistan continued to climb yesterday with 57 more deaths, 25 of them children, as the country grapples with a relief and rescue operation of near unprecedented scale.

A high-level body set up to coordinate the relief effort met in Islamabad on Saturday for the first time, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to take stock of the disaster.

Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,265 people, including 441 children. The inundation, blamed on climate change, is still spreading.

The proportion of children's deaths has raised concern. On Friday, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said there was a risk of "many more" child deaths from disease after floods.

The floods that have inundated a third of the country were preceded by four heatwaves and multiple raging forest fires, the disaster management chief told the highlevel meeting, highlighting the effects of climate change in the South Asian nation.

"The year 2022 brought some harsh realities of climate change for Pakistan," the chief of the National Disaster Management Authority Lieutenant-General Akhtar Nawaz told a briefing for the country's top leadership.

"This year we did not witness a spring season - we faced four heatwaves which caused large-scale forest fires across the country," he said.

The fires were particularly severe in the southwestern province of Balochistan, destroying swaths of pine-nut forests and other vegetation, not far from areas now underwater. Balochistan has received 436% more rain than the 30-year average this monsoon.

The province has seen widespread devastation, including a washing away of key rail and road networks as well as breakdowns in telecommunications and power infrastructure, the meeting was told.

The country has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7 millimetres (15.38 inches). Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was hardest hit, getting 464% more rain than the 30-year average.