CHARSADDA: Torrential rains and floods have inundated a third of Pakistan, killing more than 1,100 people, including 380 children, as the United Nations appealed for help on Tuesday in what it called an "unprecedented climate disaster".
Army helicopters plucked stranded families and dropped food parcels into inaccessible areas as the historic flood, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains, destroyed homes, businesses, infrastructure and crops and affected 33 million people, 15% of the South Asian country of 220 million. The country received almost 190% more rainfall than the 30-year average in the quarter to August this year, totaling 390.7 millimeters (15.38 inches). Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was worst hit, with 466% more rain than the 30-year average. "A third of the country is literally under water," Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman told Reuters, describing the scale of the disaster as "a catastrophe of unknown precedent". She said the water won't recede anytime soon. At least 380 children are among the dead, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told reporters during a briefing at his office in Islamabad. "Pakistan is awash in suffering," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message as the United Nations launched an appeal for $160 million to help the South Asian nation. "The people of Pakistan are facing a monsoon on steroids - the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding."
Guterres will head to Pakistan next week to see the consequences of an "unprecedented climate catastrophe", a UN spokesman said. He said the scale of the climate catastrophe had drawn the collective attention of the world. Nearly 300 stranded people, including some tourists, were airlifted in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, the state disaster management agency said in a statement, while more than 50,000 people were moved to two government shelters in the northwest. "Life here is very painful," villager Hussain Sadiq, 63, who was in one of the shelters with his parents and five children, told Reuters, adding that his family had "lost everything". Hussain said medical assistance is inadequate and diarrhea and fever are common in the shelter. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the northern Swat Valley and reviewed the rescue and relief operations, saying "rehabilitation will take a long, long time". The United States will provide $30 million to support Pakistan's flood response through USAID, its embassy in Islamabad said in a statement, saying the country was "deeply saddened by the devastating loss of lives, livelihoods and homes across Pakistan." "Duty to Help" Initial estimates put the flood damage at more than $10 billion, the government said, adding that the world has an obligation to help Pakistan cope with the effects of man-made climate change.
The losses are likely to be much higher, the prime minister said. Torrential rain triggered flash floods that rushed from the northern mountains, destroying buildings and bridges and washing away roads and standing and stored crops. Colossal volumes of water pour into the Indus River, which flows through the center of the earth from its northern peaks to its southern plains, bringing floods along its length. Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said hundreds of thousands of people were living outdoors without access to food, clean water, shelter or basic health care. Guterres said the $160 million he hoped to raise through the appeal would provide 5.2 million people with food, water, sanitation, emergency education and health support. 'Lack of help' Prime Minister Sharif stated that the amount of aid would need to be "quickly multiplied" and pledged that "every cent will reach the needy, there will be absolutely no waste". Sharif feared the devastation would further derail an economy already in turmoil, likely to lead to acute food shortages and contribute to skyrocketing inflation, which stood at 24.9% in July. Wheat sowing could also be delayed, he said, and to mitigate the impact of this, Pakistan was already in talks with Russia to import wheat. General Akhtar Nawaz, head of the National Disaster Management Agency, said at least 72 of Pakistan's 160 districts were declared disaster-hit. More than two million acres (809,371 hectares) of farmland were flooded, he said. Bhutto-Zardari said that Pakistan has become the ground zero of global warming. "The situation is likely to worsen as heavy rains continue over areas already inundated by more than two months of storms and floods," he said. Guterres appealed for a quick response to Pakistan's request for help from the international community and called for an end to the "sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet through climate change". "Extreme monsoon floods are telling us there is no time to waste, the climate tipping point is here," said Rehman, the climate change minister, adding that Pakistan was looking to the developed world not to make it pay for other countries' carbon emissions. supported development.