Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned Sunday night that flooding caused by this year’s extreme monsoon rains, in addition to melting waters from Pakistan’s glaciers, would worsen the country’s economic woes and that financial aid would be needed. “I have not seen a disaster of this scale. It is very difficult for me to put it into words,” he said. “It’s overwhelming.” A man pushes his child through a flooded area after heavy monsoon rains in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, August 29, 2022. ABDUL MAJEED/AFP/Getty According to Bhutto-Zardari, at least 30 million people out of Pakistan’s total population of 220 million have been affected in some way by the floods.
Lives and homes were lost to the floods
At least 1,061 people have died in the floods that began with seasonal monsoon rains in mid-June, and the toll is set to rise further as many communities in the mountainous northern regions remain cut off by flooded rivers that swept away roads and bridges. Army helicopters struggled to remove people cut off by raging torrents to safety in the north, where steep hills and valleys make for treacherous flying conditions. Several rivers in the area – which is a scenic tourist destination when there are no monsoon rains – have burst their banks, sweeping away dozens of buildings, including a 150-room hotel that collapsed in a raging torrent. The swollen Swat River has forced tens of thousands of people in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to flee their homes and seek shelter in relief camps set up in government buildings. But with so many displaced, provincial government spokesman Kamran Bangash said many people had camped on roadsides, desperate to avoid flooding where they could find higher ground. Bangash said about 330,000 people were displaced from villages in Charsanda and Nowsehra districts alone. Damage was also severe in the southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh. Pakistani flood victims wade through flood waters after monsoon rains in Matiari, Sindh province, Pakistan, August 29, 2022. Shakeel Ahmad/Anadolu Agency/Getty Bhutto-Zardari said at least 1 million tents were among the most urgently needed items of aid to temporarily house those made homeless by the floods.
‘Climate disaster’ leaving Pakistan underwater
Pakistan’s climate minister has warned that a third of the country could be under water by the time this year’s “monster monsoon” floods recede. Pakistan is hit, on average, with three or four monsoon rains per season, but this year has been bad. The country is currently in the grip of the eighth season of relentless summer rains. “We could very well have a quarter or a third of Pakistan underwater,” Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and federal minister for climate change, said on Sunday. Residents gather next to a road damaged by floodwaters after heavy monsoon rains in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, August 29, 2022. ABDUL MAJEED/AFP/Getty He said Pakistan was experiencing a “severe climate catastrophe”. “We are currently at ground zero on the frontline of extreme weather, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, floods and now the monster monsoon of the decade wreaking unstoppable havoc across the country,” Rehman said. He warned that a warming climate has accelerated the rate at which glaciers are melting in Pakistan’s mountainous north, exacerbating the effects of heavy rainfall. Pakistan has 7,532 glaciers, more than anywhere else outside the polar regions. A photo taken on May 7, 2022, shows a bridge partially collapsing due to flooding caused by a glacial eruption, in Hassanabad village, in Pakistan’s northern Hunza region. AFP via Getty Officials say Pakistan is unfairly bearing the brunt of irresponsible environmental practices elsewhere in the world. The country ranks eighth in Germanwatch’s global climate risk index, which lists the countries considered most vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change. “Pakistan is facing increasingly devastating climate-induced droughts and floods. Despite producing less than 1% of the world’s carbon footprint, the country is suffering the consequences of global inaction,” said IRC Country Director Pakistan , Shabnam Baloch, in the statement on Monday. But domestic problems are not helping matters. Corruption, poor planning and flouting local regulations mean thousands of buildings have been erected in areas prone to seasonal flooding.
Call for help
Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday that the floods would have an even greater economic impact on Pakistan than the coronavirus pandemic and made it clear that help was needed as soon as possible.
Many of this year’s crops are gone, he noted, and in a nation where so many people rely on agriculture as a means of providing for themselves and their families, “obviously, that’s going to have an impact on the overall economic situation.”
Announcing an urgent appeal for funding, the non-profit International Rescue Committee said on Monday that more than 30 million people were “in urgent need” because of the floods.
“Since mid-June, monsoons have destroyed 3,000 kilometers of roads, 130 bridges and 495,000 homes. Sindh and Balochistan provinces have seen 784% and 500% more rain than average, and more monsoon rains are expected in the coming weeks. With more than 4 million hectares of crops were damaged and nearly 800,000 livestock were killed, the IRC expects a sharp increase in food insecurity and severe economic impacts,” the aid organization said.
Pakistani officials echoed that concern and made it clear they would need help from wherever they could.
“I would expect not only the International Monetary Fund, but the international community and international organizations to really realize the level of devastation,” Foreign Minister Bhutto-Zardari said.
Humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates is offloaded at Nur Khan Air Base, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, on August 29, 2022, to help victims of flooding caused by a ‘monster monsoon’ season. Pamphlet/Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Pakistan
The US and UK governments have pledged about $1 million each in emergency relief, and the first foreign aid began flowing into Pakistan on Monday via flights from Turkey and the UAE.
Pakistan was already grappling with high inflation, an undervalued currency and a cash shortage, and Bhutto-Zardari said he hoped the flood emergency would persuade the IMF’s board this week to release $1.2 billion as part of the next tranches to an already current national rescue program from the global rescue fund.
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