Published on : 01/09/2022 – 12:12
In Pakistan, hit by a “cataclysmic monsoon”, 33 million inhabitants are affected by the “worst floods in the country’s history”, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Rescue operations are organized to evacuate the victims and emergency camps welcome those whose house is still under water.
Floods from monsoon rains submerged a third of the Pakistan, causing the death of 1,191 people since June, according to a report published Wednesday, August 31, and devastating large swathes of agricultural land as well as more than a million homes. More than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by what Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “worst floods in Pakistan’s history”.
On Wednesday, the country continued to mobilize all the means at its disposal to help the millions of disaster victims: helicopters trying to evacuate people stranded in the mountains of the North, boats traversing the flooded plains of the South, setting up camps for emergency…
>> To read also: After the heat waves, the deluge, Pakistan on the front line of climate change
To help Pakistan cope with this situation, the United States announced Tuesday a first shipment of humanitarian aid, worth 30 million dollars. Cargo flights have started arriving from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. On Wednesday, France announced the dispatch of a plane bringing in particular 83 powerful motor pumps, 200 tents, survival equipment, as well as rescuers, doctors and nurses. Pakistan’s prime minister promised that every penny of international aid would be spent “transparently” and would go “to those in need”.
The Pakistani government estimates that at least $10 billion will be needed to repair the massive damage to infrastructure, particularly in telecommunications, roads and agriculture. The priority for the moment remains to reach the thousands of people stranded in the mountains and valleys of the north, and in the isolated villages of the south and west.
