30 million affected by flooding
KARACHI: Historic monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan have affected more than 30 million people over the last few weeks, the country’s climate change minister said yesterday, calling the situation a ‘‘climateinduced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.’’
Pakistan has urged the international community to help with relief efforts as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of torrential rains that have triggered massive floods since last month, killing more than 900 people.
‘‘Thirtythree million have been affected, in different ways; the final homeless figure is being assessed,’’ Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said by text.
The southern province of Sindh, hardest hit in the last few days, had requested 1 million tents for affected people.
‘‘This is not the task of one country or one province. It is a climateinduced disaster,’’ she added.
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal separately said 30 million people had been affected, a figure that would represent about 15% of the South Asian country’s population.
United Nations agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update the monsoon rains had affected some 3 million people in Pakistan of whom 184,000 had been displaced to relief camps across the country.
Funding and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for cashstrapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure that the International Monetary
Fund approves the release of muchneeded bailout money.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a report that in 24 hours 150km of roads had been damaged across the country and more than 82,000 homes had been partially or fully damaged.
Since midJune, when the monsoon began, more than 3000km of road, 130 bridges and 495,000 homes had been damaged, according to NDMA’s last situation report, figures also echoed in the OHCA report.
A vast majority of this damage was in the southern province of Sindh.
‘‘Brother, the rain has not stopped for the past three months . . . . We are living in a rickshaw with our children because the roof of our mud house is leaking,’’ a woman who declined to be named said in Hyderabad, Sindh’s secondlargest city.
OCHA also warned that alerts had been issued for floods, river overflows, and landslides in several areas of Pakistan, and heavy rainfall was forecast for the next two days, over most of the country.
Seated with three of her children in the rickshaw she said: ‘‘Where can we go? The gutters are overflowing, and our courtyard is filled up with sewage. Our houses and alleys have turned into a floating garbage bin.’’
Rehman said Sindh had received ‘‘784%’’ more rainfall this month than the August average, while the province of Balochistan had received nearly 500% more. — Reuters
❛ This is not the task of one country or one province. It is a climateinduced disaster