WEB DESK
Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman has called for immediate humanitarian aid and rescue efforts to rehabilitate the rain and flood-affected populations across Pakistan.
As many as 830 people have been killed, 1,348 injured and thousands left homeless as torrential rains lash the country, Rehman said during a briefing on the current flood emergency to reassess the damage caused by the recurrent flash flooding in affected areas.
From Balochistan, the monsoon system has moved to Sindh where 30 districts are underwater. During the current monsoon, Sindh and Balochistan experienced 395% and 379% above the average rainfall, she said.
Epicentre of calamity
It is a climate catastrophe of epic scale, bringing in its wake the humanitarian crisis that could well match the magnitude of the big flood that was witnessed in 2010.
At this point, both sides of the Indus are flooded in Sindh, which is the current epicentre of the calamity. The shelter is dangerously impacted in the 30 districts of Sindh, and even in Balochistan, and now the same kind of speed and velocity of water is being experienced in south Punjab. People are adrift, livestock and crops are damaged. It is a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented monsoon proportions, said Sherry.
Given the scale of the disaster, there is no question of the provinces or even Islamabad being able to cope with this magnitude of climate catastrophe on their own. Lives are at risk, and thousands are homeless. It is important that international partners mobilise assistance. The Indus is in high floods where flow of over 600,000 cusecs is expected to cross Guddu and then Sukkur Barrages on 23rd and 24th of August, 2022 which will bring all the Katcha area along Indus under water, displacing thousands of families.
