Floods, waterborne diseases claim 27 more lives in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AA) – Another 27 people have lost their lives in flood-hit areas of Pakistan amid reports of an outbreak of waterborne diseases in the affected regions, officials and local media said.

During the last 24 hours, 15 people died as houses collapsed in different areas of southern Sindh province, bringing the total number of casualties to 1,559 with 12,850 wounded since mid-June, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority.

“All of us on the ground see malnourished children, battling diarrhea and malaria, dengue fever, and many with painful skin conditions,” said Abdullah Fadil, a UNICEF representative in Pakistan, in a statement last week after visiting the flood-hit areas.

According to UNICEF, around 16 million children have been impacted by the flood and at least 3.4 million children need immediate lifesaving support.

Currently, one-third of the country is under water as the massive rains and melting glaciers have caused the country’s main Indus River to overflow, inundating vast swaths of plains, and farms.

The destructive floods affected millions of people in 81 districts across the country and thousands of them are living in tents as nearly 2 million houses were damaged by the floods.

Destructive rains and floods have also washed away 12,716 kilometers (7,901 miles) of roads, 374 bridges and buildings across the South Asian nuclear country, which is already grappling with political and economic turmoil.

Over 33 million of the country’s approximately 220 million population have been affected by the raging floods, causing a staggering loss of over $30 billion in damages to an already weakened infrastructure.

Almost 45% of the country’s cropland has already been inundated by the floods, posing a serious threat to food security and further adding to the already skyrocketing inflation.