ISLAMABAD — The death toll from flooding in Pakistan has topped a thousand since mid-June, officials said Sunday, when the country’s climate minister called the fatal monsoon season a “severe climate catastrophe. “
Flash floods triggered by heavy rains levelled villages and crops as infantrymen and rescuers evacuated stranded citizens to the protection of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority reported that the death toll since the start of the monsoon season earlier than usual this year, in mid-June, has reached another 1,061 people after new deaths were reported in other provinces.
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s senator and senior meteorological official, said in a video posted on Twitter that Pakistan is experiencing a “severe climate catastrophe, one of the most complicated of the decade. “
Pakistan has never noticed an uninterrupted monsoon cycle like this. 8 weeks of uninterrupted torrents have left large swaths of the country underwater. It is not a general season, it is a deluge everywhere, affecting more than 33 million people, which is the duration of a country pequeño. @dwnews pic. twitter. com/gYAbv9ldlH
“We are right now at point 0 of the front line of excessive weather events, in an incessant cascade of heat waves, wildfires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake explosions, flooding and now the monsoon of the decade is wreaking havoc . – avoiding devastation across the country,” he said. The camera was retweeted by the country’s ambassador to the European Union.
Flooding from the Swat River affected the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where tens of thousands of others, specifically in Charsadda and Nowshehra districts, were evacuated from their homes to relief camps set up in government buildings. Said Kamran Bangash, a spokesman for the provincial government.
Bangash said some 180,000 people were evacuated from Charsadda and 150,000 from villages in Nowshehra district.
Khaista Rehman, 55, with no relation to the climate minister, took refuge with his wife and three children on the edge of the Islamabad-Peshawar road after his space in Charsadda was submerged overnight.
“Thank God, we are now on this rather superior road compared to the flooded area,” he said. with my children. “
The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all 4 provinces of the country. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, many roads have been impassable and forced cuts have become widespread, affecting millions of people.
Pope Francis said Sunday he sought to make sure his “closeness to the rest of the people of Pakistan hit floods of disastrous proportions. “Francis said he prayed “for the many victims, for the wounded and evacuated, and for foreign solidarity to be swift and generous. “
Rehman told Turkish newspaper TRT World that as long as the rains cease, “we may have a quarter or a third of Pakistan underwater. “
“This is anything that is a global crisis and, of course, we will want more planning and sustainable progress on the ground. . . We will want climate-resistant crops as well as structures,” he said.
In May, Rehman told BBC Newshour that the north and south of the country were experiencing extreme weather events due to emerging temperatures. “So in the north, right now, we’re experiencing what’s called glacial lake flooding, which we have a lot of because Pakistan is home to the most glaciers outside the polar region. “
The government has deployed infantrymen to assist the civilian government in rescue and relief operations across the country. The Pakistani military also said it had airlifted 22 tourists trapped in a valley in the north of the country to take them to safety.
Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif visited flood victims in the balochistan city of Jafferabad. He promised that the government would provide housing for all those who lost their homes.
Associated Press editors Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed.
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