ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has confirmed that floods devastation intensified previously high levels of food insecurity in Pakistan.
The Bank observed in its most recent report, “Food Security Update,” that Pakistan has experienced severe flash flooding and landslides as a result of heavy monsoon rains since June 2022 (67 percent above average amounts) and accelerated glacier melting due to extreme heat.
In Pakistan, strong monsoon rains have caused flooding that resulted in damaged infrastructure and fatalities as of mid-June 2022.
33 million people have been impacted since September 6 in 81 districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Significantly more rainfall than the 30-year average has severely harmed agricultural infrastructure, livestock, and forest resources. The hardest hit are rural areas, which depend on agriculture and cattle for their livelihoods. Heavy damage to the transportation network, according to the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), resulted in an immediate decrease in access to food in the impacted districts and an increase in food costs.
The communities that ACTED’s teams have surveyed in Balochistan and Sindh reported having no access to food and, in some cases, no access to local markets. Furthermore, according to the OCHA Humanitarian Advisory Team in Pakistan, 73% of households in flood-prone areas lack the means to purchase food.
Over 1.2 million hectares of Sindh’s agricultural land have reportedly been devastated, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which will have disastrous effects on the livelihoods and food production in the area. A recent study used remote sensing technology to estimate production losses in the Sindh region of 193 tons of rice (80% of total production), 3.1 million bales of cotton (88.8% of total production), and 10.5 million tons of sugarcane. Although more accurate estimates of the extent of the damage are forthcoming (66 per cent of total production).
61% of livestock owners in Balochistan’s examined districts have reported signs of trans-boundary animal illnesses. Approximately 50% of the households in Balochistan’s assessed districts that were impacted by flooding depend on raising livestock for their income; 36% of these households reported losing at least one livestock asset, 46% reported damage to livestock shelters, and 29% reported losing animal feedstock. Balochistan’s rains and floods are said to have claimed 500,000 head of livestock in total, or 66% of the over 755,000 animal deaths documented nationwide, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
The flooding has exacerbated previously high levels of food insecurity in Pakistan, where it is estimated that 4.66 million people faced crisis conditions or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above) from October 2021 to March and April 2022.
In addition, Pakistan ranked ninth in 2021 among the 10 nations and territories with the greatest number of citizens experiencing a crisis of some kind (IPC/CH Phase 3 or higher) or an equivalent. Food insecurity has previously been caused by a number of shocks, such as rising food and fuel prices, drought, livestock diseases, and widespread loss of income-generating opportunities as a result of the effects of Covid-19 in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh provinces.
Nearly 510,000 of the 1.9 million people in the impacted regions who require food security and agricultural support, according to the FAO, are just one step away from experiencing severe food insecurity. According to the World Bank’s Pakistan Climate Risk Country Profile, Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with an increase in the frequency of drought conditions predicted.
