PC: NewsFirst.lk
Since mid-June, severe rains and flooding have killed at least 1,033 people in Pakistan, including 348 children, and injured 1,527 more, according to officials.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of the nation said that 119 people had perished and 71 had been hurt just in the previous day.
The tragedy has touched at least 33 million people, according to Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman on Thursday. The largest humanitarian tragedy of this decade, according to her, the floods were “unprecedented.”
When compared to the nation’s average three to four cycles of rain, Pakistan is currently experiencing its eighth monsoon cycle, according to Rehman. “Super flood torrent statistics are startling.”
She emphasised the effects on the south of the country in especially and said that “maximum” assistance efforts are being made.
The country’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Friday that the army’s deployment was approved to help with relief and rescue efforts in flood-affected districts.
The ministry announced that troops would support Pakistan’s four provincial governments, including Balochistan, the region’s worst-affected province in the southwest.
The provinces and the government would work out the specific amount of troops as well as where and when they would be deployed, according to the ministry.
To help with the collecting, transportation, and distribution of flood relief supplies to victims, flood relief centres are being built around the nation, according to the Pakistani Armed Forces.
According to the armed forces, army troops are also assisting with evacuations to safer locations, offering food, shelter, and medical attention to flood victims.
According to Rehman, the neighbouring province of Balochistan, which is mostly cut off from electricity, gas, and the internet, has asked for 100,000 tents while the southern state of Sindh, which has been severely affected by the flooding, has asked for 1 million.
Rehman added that given Pakistan’s “limited” resources, the “epic” humanitarian crisis caused by climate change is currently Pakistan’s top concern. He pleaded with the world community to help.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif briefed foreign diplomats on the problem on Friday, saying that his nation must concentrate its rehabilitation efforts toward increased climate change resilience because it is on the front lines of climate change while having a relatively low carbon footprint.
Separately, Ahsan Iqbal, the minister for planning and development, told Reuters that 30 million people have been impacted, which equates to around 15% of the population of the South Asian nation.
In a report released on Thursday, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN reported that the monsoon rains in Pakistan had affected almost 3 million people, of whom 184,000 have been relocated to relief camps across the nation.
The financial difficulties Pakistan is facing will make funding and reconstruction activities difficult. Pakistan must reduce spending in order to get the International Monetary Fund to approve the release of much-needed bailout funds.
In a study, the NDMA said that over 82,000 dwellings had suffered partial or total damage, and 150 kilometres (93 miles) of highways had been destroyed nationwide in the previous 24 hours.
According to the most recent situation assessment from the NDMA, which was supported by the OHCA report, more than 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) of roads, 130 bridges, and 495,000 dwellings had been damaged since the start of the monsoon.
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