Misery mounts for millions in Pakistan struck by floods

Madyan, Pakistan (AFP):

Misery is mounting for millions trapped by the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, which have have submerged a third of Pakistan and claimed at least 1,300 lives.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called it “a monsoon on steroids” as he launched an international appeal on August 30 for $160 million in emergency funding.

The World Health Organization announced a Grade 3 emergency for the Pakistan floods — its highest level.

Officials say more than 33 million people are affected — one in every seven Pakistanis — and it will cost more than $10 billion to rebuild.

The focus for now, however, is reaching tens of thousands still stranded on hills and in valleys in the north, as well as remote villages in the south and west.

“We appeal to the government to help end our miseries at the soonest,” said Mohammad Safar, 38, outside his submerged home in Shikarpur in the southeastern province of Sindh.

“The water must be drained out from here immediately so we can go back to our homes.”

There is so much water, but there is nowhere for it to drain.

Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman described the country “like a fully soaked sponge”, incapable of absorbing any more rain.

‘Burning with pain’ 

Pakistan has received twice its usual monsoon rainfall, weather authorities say, but Balochistan and Sindh provinces have seen more than four times the average of the last three decades.

Padidan, a small town in Sindh, has been drenched with an astonishing 1.75 metres (70 inches) since June.

Pakistan receives heavy — often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies, but such intense downpours have not been seen for three decades.

Officials have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

Earlier this year much of the nation was in the grip of a drought and heatwave, with temperatures hitting 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) in Sindh province.

The latest disaster could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised aid donors that any funding would be responsibly spent.

“I want to give my solemn pledge and solemn commitment… every penny will be spent in a very transparent fashion. Every penny will reach the needy,” he said.

Pakistan was already desperate for international support and the floods have compounded the challenge.

Prices of basic goods — particularly onions, tomatoes and chickpeas — are soaring as vendors bemoan a lack of supplies from the flooded breadbasket provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

Makeshift relief camps have sprung up all over Pakistan — in schools, on motorways and in military bases.

Displaced people are sweltering in the summer heat with sporadic food aid and little access to water.

In Sindh, doctors treated patients who made their way to a makeshift clinic after walking barefoot through dirty floodwater, mud and streets full of debris and manure.

“My child’s foot is burning with pain. My feet too,” said Azra Bhambro, a 23-year-old woman who had come to the clinic for help.

In the northwestern town of Nowshera, a technical college was turned into a shelter for up to 2,500 flood victims.

One road to the north in Swat Valley now ends in the town of Bahrain, in ruins after flash floods obliterated the bridge across the Swat River.

Hotels have disappeared, the town’s mosque is a bare shell, and waist-high water still gushes through the main bazaar.