Pakistan seeks international help as millions hit by ongoing monsoon spells

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan government has sought the international community’s help to cope with the destruction caused by floods in the country.

The magnitude of the abnormal rains and flooding has prompted cash-strapped Pakistan to launch a global appeal to raise funds to meet the needs of the growing number of affected people.

The European Union has already announced a donation of 76 million rupees (approximately $350,000) to the country’s flood victims.

The calamity is being seen as bigger than the 2010 floods that inundated a fifth of Pakistan and killed over 2,000 people.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has appealed to the nation to assist flood victims, stating that the government needed hundreds of billions of rupees for relief and rehabilitation.

Another 15 people lost their lives on Wednesday in southern and southwestern Pakistan as a fresh rain system triggering massive flooding.

The majority of fatalities have been reported in Sindh, where at least 30 districts have been raked by the ongoing monsoon rains.

The massive downpours added to the miseries of hundreds of thousands of people who have had to leave their homes and move to higher grounds in several parts of the country.

Raging flash floods flowing down from the Sulieman mountain range inundated hundreds of villages in northeastern Punjab and eastern Balochistan, triggering fresh migrations.

Citing government officials, Geo News reported that at least 10,000 people migrated to safer places in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts due to the latest flooding.

Footage showed people wading through gushing rainwaters to reach safety in several parts of Balochistan’s eastern districts of Sibbi, Kohlu, Chaghi, Jaffarabad, and Naseerabad, and Sindh’s southern district of Badin, Thatta, Mirpur Khas, Sanghar, and Hyderabad.

Another footage showed desperate victims crying for help, shelter and food in several rain-hit areas.

Over the past two days, rescue teams from the Pakistan Army and several non-governmental organizations moved thousands of marooned people to shelter camps and safer places by boats.

Crowds of people were seen running wildly to grab packets of food and water bottles dropped from the army and air force planes.

600% more rains than last year

Sindh has turned out to be the hardest hit by the latest spells, with hundreds of thousands affected by the fresh rain spells and flooding.

“The entire province of Sindh is submerged. It looks like a river. It’s never been like this before,” Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said at a press conference in Sukkur on Wednesday.

He added that the province received 600% more rain in August than the previous year.

“We are running out of food, tents, and even firewood (to cook the food for victims). Several districts are without gas and electricity,” he said, adding that at least one million tents are immediately required for the victims who are lying under open skies.

He urged non-governmental organizations and philanthropists to join hands with the government, saying the “catastrophe is beyond imagination.”

He said that since June rains and flooding had killed over 300 people in Sindh alone.

In Balochistan, the latest flooding washed away several alternative roads and bridges, disconnecting many areas from the rest of the country.

Traffic between Quetta, Balochistan’s capital, and Karachi, the nation’s commercial capital, remained suspended for the eighth consecutive day.

Hundreds of farms and orchards have been submerged in Balochistan, which serves as the country’s “fruit basket.”

Since June 14, around 850 people have lost their lives and another 1,350 have been injured due to roof collapses, electrocution, drowning, and lightning across the country, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, a state-run agency that coordinates relief and rescue efforts.

The Meteorological Department of Pakistan has forecast massive rains for the next 48 hours.​​​​​​​