Pakistan: More than 1,100 people have been killed in Pakistan due to torrential rains and flooding, including 380 children, according to a Tuesday request for relief from the U.N. for an “unprecedented climatic calamity.”
As the unprecedented flood, brought on by exceptionally severe monsoon rains, devastating homes, businesses, infrastructure, and crops, 33 million people or 15 percent of the 220 million-strong South Asian nation, were affected. Army helicopters rescued trapped families and delivered food supplies to inaccessible places.
The nation received 390.7 millimetres of rain, or over 190 percent more than the 30-year normal, in the quarter ending in August of this year (15.38 inches). The 50 million-person Sindh province was most impacted, receiving 466 percent more rain than the 30-year normal.
Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman shared the information that “one-third of the country is really underwater” and called the disaster’s scope “a calamity of unknown precedent.”
She predicted that the water would not go down any time soon.
At a press conference held at his office in Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif informed that at least 380 children were among the victims.
In a video message, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that Pakistan was “awash in agony” as the organisation began a plea for $160 million to aid the South Asian country. “The people from Pakistan are dealing with the persistent effects of epochal amounts of rain as well as flooding,” said one observer.
According to a U.N. official, Guterres would visit Pakistan in the upcoming week to observe the consequences of the “extraordinary climate calamity.”
He said that the severity of the climate calamity required the attention of the entire globe.
In addition to moving more than 50,000 people to two government shelters in the northwest, a state-run disaster management agency said that almost 300 stranded individuals, including some tourists, were flown to northern Pakistan on Tuesday.
Hussain Sadiq, a 63-year-old villager who was staying at one of the shelters with his parents and five children, shared that life there was “extremely hard” and that his family had “lost everything.”
Hussain claimed that the shelter frequently saw cases of fever and diarrhoea as well as inadequate medical care.