Unprecedented flash floods wreak havoc in Pakistan, over 1000 killed

Heavy rains have triggered flash floods and wreaked havoc across much of Pakistan since mid-June, leaving 903 dead and about 50,000 people homeless, the country’s disaster agency said Wednesday.

Thousands whose homes were swept away now live in tents, miles away from their inundated villages and towns, after being rescued by soldiers, local disaster workers and volunteers.
The National Disaster Management Authority said Wednesday that 126 people were killed in flood-related incidents in the past 48 hours, with most of the victims being women and children.
From abroad, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif issued an appeal, urging philanthropists to help flood-affected areas in Pakistan.

Sharif is currently visiting the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where he arrived on Tuesday, seeking financial assistance, loans and foreign investment for his cash-strapped Islamic nation. His government has promised to compensate those who lost homes in the floods.

After inundating much of southwestern Baluchistan and eastern Punjab province, flash floods have now started to affect also the southern Sindh province. Authorities this week closed schools in Sindh and Baluchistan.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister of climate change, tweeted on Tuesday that local authorities are unable to cope on their own and appealed on the world community to help.
Pakistani Television footage on Wednesday showed people wading through waist-high water, holding their children and carrying essential items on their heads. Rescuers used trucks and boats to evacuate people to safer places and food, tents and other basic supplies were being dispatched to flood-affected areas.

In some places, the popular Geo TV reported, families struggled to bury their loved ones as local graveyards were also inundated by floodwaters. The TV broadcast footage showing mourners carrying coffins through flooded areas to bury the dead away from submerged homes.

Monsoon rains, which started in mid-June, were expected to continue this week, mainly in the south.
Murad Ali Shah, the top elected official in Sindh province, said the situation was worse than in 2010, when floods killed at least 1,700 people in Pakistan, mostly in Sindh. “We are doing our best to evacuate people from flood-hit areas,” he said Tuesday.

Floods have damaged as many as 129 bridges across Pakistan, disrupting the supply of fruit and vegetables to markets and causing a hike in prices.
Experts say climate change has caused erratic weather conditions in Pakistan, resulting in cloudbursts, and melting of glaciers that has swelled rivers. They say that limiting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions will help limit more drastic weather events around the world, including in this South Asian country.

“In recent decades, we never witnessed such an unusual heavier downpour in Pakistan,” said scientist Shahla Gondal, adding that authorities are ill-equipped and “do not know how to tackle” flooding disasters.

Pakistan has suffered economic losses of over USD 10 billion due to rains and floods that inundated vast areas, affecting millions of people, the country’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said. Speaking to media, Iqbal asserted that more than five years would be needed to rebuild the country. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said floods this summer have killed more than 1,136 people and injured 1,636 as well as damaging 1 million homes. At least 498,000 people in the country of 220 million are in relief camps after being displaced, it said. Many more displaced are believed to be living with relatives, friends or outside.

1. Around 7,19,558 livestock are also dead, as millions of acres of fertile farmlands have been inundated by weeks of constant rains.
2. Nearly a half million people crowded into camps after losing their homes in widespread flooding.
3. Authorities were starting the long effort of rebuilding roads and restarting railways. The floods destroyed more than 150 bridges and numerous roads have been washed away, making rescue operations difficult.
4. Unable to cope with one of the worst catastrophes, Pakistan sought international help and the world has responded, with humanitarian assistance and solidarity messages coming from several countries.
5. PM Modi said he was saddened to see the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan and hoped for an early restoration of normalcy. “Saddened to see the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the injured and all those affected by this natural calamity and hope for an early restoration of normalcy,” Modi said in a tweet.
6. International aid was starting to flow into Pakistan, and the military was helping distribute aid to remote areas and evacuate those who had lost their homes.
7. The climate minister warned Monday that Pakistan is on the ‘front line’ of the world’s climate crisis after unprecedented monsoon rains wracked the country since mid-June.
8. The rains stopped more than two days ago, and floods in some areas were receding. But Pakistanis in many parts of the country were still wading through waters that filled their homes or covered their town’s streets as they struggled with how to deal with the damage to homes and businesses.
9. In one of the worst single incidents of the flooding, at least 11 people were killed Monday when a boat that volunteer rescuers were using to evacuate two dozen people capsized in the flood-swollen waters of the Indus River near the southern city of Bilawal Pur, media reported. An unknown number were still missing from the capsizing.
10. Pakistan’s Energy Ministry said that restoration of power in Sindh and Balochistan provinces remained top priority.