Pakistan Asks For International Help To Deal With Floods That Leave More Than A Thousand Dead

Pakistan Asks For International Help To Deal With Floods That Leave More Than a Thousand Dead

Pakistan has requested this Sunday the support of the rest of the countries to face the serious floods that it is suffering and that have caused more than 1,000 deaths since mid-June, when the heavy monsoon rains began.


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“Some countries have promised help and it is coming, but we need more to help millions of people affected by the floods,” Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal told EFE.

The United States, the United Kingdom, China and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries, have responded to the country’s call for help, but more funds are needed to respond to the worst floods in Pakistan since 2010, the year in which more than 2,000 people perished. by the floods.



The first flight with assistance and relief material is scheduled to land this afternoon at the Noor Khan air base in northern Rawalpindi, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. He will be followed by another 15 planes with humanitarian material that will arrive in the coming days from the United Arab Emirates.

At least 1,061 people have died across the country since the start of the rains on June 14, 119 of them in the last 24 hours, according to the latest report from the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Rainfall has also left 1,527 injured in the last two months, reported the NDMA

Minister Iqbal, who also chairs the National Flood Relief Committee, has said that all government agencies are working day and night to provide rescue and relief services to flood victims.

The floods caused havoc in recent days mainly in the north, due to the flooding of the Kabul and Swat rivers, which cross the Nowshera and Charsadda districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The images reveal how the water entered hundreds of houses in various towns, forcing thousands of people to flee and spend the night on the roads accompanied by their cattle.

evacuations

The Indus River, which runs through the country from north to south, is also at risk of imminent flooding at several points, forcing local authorities to evacuate many towns.

According to an official at the Jinnah Dam in northern Pakistan, the flow of water into the dam is 440,000 cubic feet per second at the moment, posing a very high risk of overflow.



“The Jinnah dam is likely to register a heavy water flow of 700,000 cubic feet per second for 24 to 48 hours,” Khalid Farid, head of the dam, told EFE.

In addition, the authorities warned of a second wave of flooding in the southern province of Sindh, where millions of people are already sleeping in tents or outdoors due to the ravages of heavy rains that devastated the region.

The Government declared an emergency in the areas affected by the floods and the Army is deployed to help the victims.

worsening economy

The country is suffering from the severe flooding at a time when it is facing a faltering economy, depleted foreign exchange reserves, a collapsing local currency and rising inflation, which topped 44% over the past week. .

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said Sunday night that the resulting floods will worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid is needed. “Looking forward, I hope that not only the International Monetary Fund, but the international community and international organizations really understand the level of devastation,” he said, according to what he collects. Guardian.

“I have not seen a destruction of this magnitude, it is very difficult for me to express it in words … it is overwhelming,” added the minister, who pointed out that many crops that provided a large part of the population’s livelihood had disappeared. “Obviously this will have an effect on the general economic situation,” he said.

During the monsoon season in South Asia – from June to September – landslides and floods are common and, in addition to victims, significant material damage is caused.

melting of glaciers

Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and federal minister for climate change, said on Sunday that the country was “at ground zero of the front line of extreme weather events.”

“We could have a quarter or a third of Pakistan under water,” he said, adding that the country was experiencing a “major climate catastrophe, one of the harshest in a decade.”

“Right now we are at ground zero of the front line of extreme weather events, in a relentless cascade of heat waves, wildfires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events, and now the monster monsoon of decade is wreaking nonstop havoc across the country,” he said in an interview with DW News.

Rehman said a warming climate was causing glaciers in the northern mountain regions to melt faster than normal, compounding the impact of heavy rains. Pakistan has more glaciers – more than 7,000 – than anywhere else outside the polar regions.



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