Pakistan floods leave more than 1,000 dead amid catastrophe scenario

Thirty million people have been affected, half a million are in relief camps and damage amounts to €3 billion

Aug. 27 () –

Pakistani authorities have confirmed Saturday the worst forecasts and raised above a thousand deaths in the floods that have been sweeping the country for weeks by torrential rains, especially catastrophic in the province of Sindh, in the south of the country.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has verified 1,033 deaths and 1,527 injuries since June 14. Of these, 119 people have died (76 in Sindh) and 71 have been injured in the last few hours.

Material damage amounts to about 3 billion euros. Almost 950,000 houses have been partially or totally destroyed, more than 720,000 head of livestock have died, almost 3,500 kilometers of roads have been damaged and almost 150 bridges have collapsed.

Floods have affected 110 municipalities in the country, 72 of which have been declared disaster areas. Those directly affected by the rains amount to 5.7 million, but counting the overall situation, some 33 million people have been threatened by the floods.

The most serious situation concerns the 498,000 people who have now been moved to relief camps, among them a total of approximately 51,000 rescued, according to the balance collected by the Geo TV channel.

According to the NDMA, Pakistan received 166.8 mm of rainfall in August, compared to the average of 48 mm, an increase of 241 percent. Consequently, the abnormal increase in rainfall generated flash floods throughout the country, particularly in the southern part of Pakistan and specifically in Sindh, where more than a score of municipalities have been submerged.

The Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, has confirmed in the last hours the opening of a “war room” headed by the Prime Minister, Shabhaz Sharif, to face these “monstrous rains”.

“Pakistan is going through its eighth monsoon cycle; normally the country has only three or four monsoon rain cycles. This is unprecedented and the data we are shuffling through suggests that we could go through another ninth cycle next month,” he said.