Flood toll keeps rising in Pakistan’s ‘catastrophe of epic scale’
Islamabad, Pakistan (AFP):
Heavy rains continue to pound much of Pakistan, with authorities reporting more than a dozen deaths — including nine children — in the last 24 hours.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.
The National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that nearly 125,000 homes had been destroyed and 288,000 more were damaged by the floods.
Some 700,000 livestock in Sindh and Balochistan had been killed, and nearly two million acres of farmland destroyed, officials added.
Nearly 3,000 kilometres of roads had also been damaged.
Record monsoon rains were causing a “catastrophe of epic scale”, Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said Wednesday, announcing an international appeal for help in dealing with floods that have killed more than 800 people since June.
Pakistan is eighth on a list of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by environmental NGO Germanwatch.
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