Pakistan floods: One-third of Pakistan under water, worst floods in its history

 According to satellite images from the European Space Agency (ESA), more than a third of Pakistan has been submerged in the worst floods in history.

Because catastrophic flooding can trigger secondary disasters, CNN reported that the flooding caused food shortages after millions of acres of crops were lost and hundreds of thousands of livestock died. According to ESA images on August 30, heavy rains 10 times heavier than usual flooded the channel of the Indus River, effectively creating a long lake tens of kilometers wide.

Climate change will exacerbate Pakistan's current challenges. Warm air can hold more moisture, leading to more frequent heavy precipitation. It also contributes to the rapid melting of glaciers. This is a big problem for Pakistan, which has more ice caps than any other country outside the polar regions. The Indus and its industry fear the investment required to face the threat of catastrophic events.

Pakistan is facing a food and health crisis caused by unprecedented floods. Before the flood, 27 million people did not have access to enough food and are now at risk of mass starvation, according to the charity Action Against Hunger, CNN reported.

“Our priority right now is to save and protect lives from rising water. "The scale of these floods caused tremendous destruction," said Saleh Saeed, director of the US National Emergency Management Agency. Kingdom Aid Coalition.

Prime Minister Sharif said on August 30 that people were facing food shortages and prices of stocks such as tomatoes and onions had risen.

“I have to feed my people. They are not hungry," Sharif said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also classified Pakistan's worst flooding as a "highest level" emergency, warning of the rapid spread of disease due to a lack of access to healthcare. The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned of new outbreaks and water-borne diseases after the floods, including diarrhoea, skin infections, respiratory infections, malaria and dengue fever.

Meanwhile, aid agencies have warned of a growing epidemic, leaving millions vulnerable to what the UN has called a "steroid monsoon".

Since mid-June, more than 1,100 people, including nearly 400 children, have died in the floods and millions have been displaced, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Administration (NDMA). Already struggling with political and economic turmoil, Pakistan is at the forefront of a man-made climate crisis.

Pakistan's monsoon season is usually accompanied by heavy rains, but according to the Pakistan Meteorological Agency, this was the wettest year since records began in 1961.

According to the NDMA, on August 30, southern Sindh and Balochistan provinces experienced 500% below average rainfall, entire villages and farmland flooded, buildings destroyed and crops destroyed. According to European Union data, Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world's greenhouse gases, but according to the Global Climate Risk Index, it is the eighth most vulnerable country to the climate crisis.

And as the climate crisis exacerbates extreme weather events, South Asian countries are paying a heavy price for experiencing severe weather this year, from record heat waves to massive floods, CNN reported. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the world is "sleepwalking" towards environmental destruction.

“South Asia is one of the hotspots of the global climate crisis. "People living in these hot spots are 15 times more likely to die from the effects of the climate," Guterres said.

"It is ironic that climate action is lagging behind as global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise as more and more extreme weather events occur around the world," he added. Pakistan also has more glaciers than anywhere else outside the polar regions. However, as the climate warms, the glacier becomes vulnerable to sudden bursts of meltwater. Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif called the flood "the worst event in the country's history" and estimated that the disaster caused more than $10 billion in damage to infrastructure, homes and farms.

Pakistan's climate change minister, Sheri Lehman, said 33 million people, or 15 percent of the population, were affected. According to the NDMA, more than one million houses were damaged or destroyed and at least 5,000 kilometers of roads were damaged.

According to a situation report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the floods affected two million hectares of crops in Pakistan and killed more than 794,000 animals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 800 health care facilities in the country were damaged, of which 180 were reported completely destroyed, in many areas, leaving millions of people without access to medical care and treatment.

 

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