•Devastating flash floods have washed away roads, homes and crops, leaving fatal devastation across Pakistan.
•Summer rains are the heaviest on record in a decade and are attributed to climate change.
A third of Pakistan has been submerged through historic floods, according to its climate minister.
Devastating flash floods wiped out roads, homes and crops, leaving fatal devastation across Pakistan.
“It’s a totally big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump water,” Sherry Rehman said, calling it a “crisis of proportions. “
At least 1136 other people have died since the monsoon season began in June, according to authorities.
The summer rainfall is recorded in a decade and is attributed through the government to climate change.
“Literally a third of Pakistan is underwater right now, which has crossed all borders, all criteria observed in the past,” Rehman told AFP news agency.
“We had never noticed it like this,” the minister added.
Of those known to have died, 75 have died in the past 24 hours, authorities said Monday, adding that the death toll is expected to rise.
Speaking to the BBC, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said a third of those killed were children.
“We are measuring the extent of the damage,” he added.
Authorities estimate that more than 33 million Pakistanis, one in seven people, have been affected by the historic floods.
Heavy waters in the northern Swat Valley washed away bridges and roads and isolated villages.
Thousands of other people living in the mountainous region have been ordered to evacuate, but even with the use of helicopters, the government is still struggling to catch those who are trapped.
“People after people has been annihilated. Millions of homes have been destroyed,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday after flying over the helicopter.
Those who managed to escape were in one of the many makeshift camps across the country.
“Living here is miserable. Our self-respect is at stake,” flood victim Fazal Malik told AFP from a shelter housing some 2,500 evacuees in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Provinces such as Sindh and Balochistan are the hardest hit, but the mountainous regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have also been hit hard.
This year’s record monsoon corresponds to the devastating floods of 2010, the deadliest in Pakistan’s history, which killed more than 2,000 people.
Fears are also growing about the imminent burden of post-disaster reconstruction, and the Pakistani government has requested monetary assistance from aid agencies, friendly countries and foreign donors.
“Very soon, the initial estimate is that it is large, it exceeds $10 billion (£8. 5 billion),” Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters.
Almost part of the country’s cotton crop was lost and vegetable, fruit and rice fields suffered significant damage, he added.
But Sharif said resuming a loan through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), valued at about £1. 2 billion (£1 billion) in the next year, would be critical to reviving the economy.
The program, which Pakistan concluded in 2019, was suspended earlier this year after Islamabad failed to meet targets set by the lender.
On Saturday, the British announced they had allocated up to 1. 5 million pounds ($1. 8 million) for flood relief efforts.
Speaking separately, Queen Elizabeth II said she was “deeply saddened to have been informed of the tragic loss of life and destruction” caused by the floods.
“The UK stands in solidarity with Pakistan as it begins its recovery,” he added.
A rice farmer near the town of Sukkur in the southeastern province of Sindh told AFP news agency that his fields had been devastated by flooding.
“Our harvest spanned more than 5,000 acres where the most productive quality rice was planted and eaten by you and us,” said Khalil Ahmed, 70. “This is all over. “
Sindh is so flooded with water that rescuers are struggling to succeed in those who need help.
“There are no runways or approaches available . . . our pilots are suffering to land,” a Pakistani army officer told AFP.
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