ISLAMABAD: Monsoon rains and floods claimed 119 more lives in Pakistan in the last 24 hours, said the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on late Saturday night, taking the total death toll to 1,033 since the beginning of the season in June.
Official estimates suggest more than 30 million people have been affected by massive floods and rain-related incidents in the country, forcing the government to declare a national emergency as unprecedented downpours continue for the third consecutive month.
According to the NDMA, more than two million acres of cultivated crops have been wiped out, 3,451 kilometers of roads destroyed, and 149 bridges washed away in different parts of the country.
Pakistan’s southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan have suffered maximum damage during the ongoing season, though parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have also faced severe destruction since Friday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is currently visiting the southwestern Balochistan province to monitor flood relief activities and interact with flood victims.
“The prime minister will meet the flood victims to review the relief work and to know their condition,” said an official statement released by his office earlier in the day, adding he would be briefed by senior officials in the province about the ongoing efforts to help flood victims and restore damaged infrastructure.
Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa will also visit flood-hit areas of Sindh and meet with troops who have been carrying out flood relief activities.
According to a statement issued by the military’s media wing, ISPR, the army has established 212 relief collection points throughout the country to help flood victims.
It also launched aerial relief operation in Rajanpur district of Sindh and supplied ration bags and tents to flood-affected families.
The prime minister also visited the province of Sindh on Saturday to interact with people displaced by floods. He announced a grant of Rs38 billion while pointing out that the NDMA would continue to support the provincial authorities with the relief and rehabilitation work.
Sharif maintained the government would soon conduct a survey to get more realistic estimate of damages caused by floods across the country.
“Visiting flood affected areas & meeting people,” he said in a Twitter post. “The magnitude of the calamity is bigger than estimated. Times demand that we come together as one nation in support of our people facing this calamity. Let us rise above our differences & stand by our people who need us today.”
Monsoon rains are vital for an agricultural economy like Pakistan where farmers rely on the season to irrigate their lands.
However, climate change has also resulted in erratic weather patterns in the South Asian state in recent decades, resulting in much devastation.
