From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Pakistan flooding worst in country’s history, premier says
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says flooding that has submerged a third of his country and left over 1,100 dead is “the worst in the history of Pakistan,” adding it would cost at least $10 billion to repair damaged infrastructure spread across the country.
The rains that began in June have unleashed powerful floods across the country that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.
Authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to more than 33 million people, a challenging task in areas cut off because many roads and bridges have been critically damaged.
Displaced people have been wandering on what dry land remains, seeking shelter, food and drinking water.
“To see the devastation on the ground is really mind-boggling,” Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman tells AFP.
“When we send in water pumps, they say, ‘Where do we pump the water?’ It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out.”
She says “literally a third” of the country was under water, comparing scenes from the disaster to a dystopian movie.
The Indus River, which runs the length of the South Asian nation, is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water rush downstream from its tributaries in the north.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres says Pakistan’s flooding, caused by weeks of unprecedented monsoon rains, were a signal to the world to step up action against climate change.
“Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change,” he said in a video message to an Islamabad ceremony launching the funding appeal. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
