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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the government decided to reach out to friendly countries and donors as flash floods and the torrential rains devastated more than 33 million people across the country.
The prime minister, who convened a meeting of select Islamabad-based ambassadors, high commissioners and other senior members of the diplomatic corps, to brief them on flood situation, said the ongoing monsoon spell has caused unprecedented damage and devastation in Pakistan.
Abnormal rains have triggered flash floods and wreaked havoc across Pakistan since June, affecting more than 33 million people, according to climate change minister Sherry Rehman, who called the situation a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions”.
The scale of devastation can be gauged by these numbers released by National Disaster Management Authority. The death toll from recent rains and floods has reached 937 while 1,343 have been injured.
In the last 24 hours alone, 34 more people died in KP, Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab, while 50 were injured. The total number of animals that died in the rains hit 793,995 after 85,897 more died in 24 hours.
Moreover, in the last 24 hours, another 175,069 houses were damaged, taking the number of damaged houses to 670,328.
Pakistan has called on the international community to help as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of the torrential rains.
PM said that not just Balochistan, Sindh and South Punjab, which were badly affected, the current spell of torrential rains had led to flooding in the northern regions of the KPK province.
The ongoing rain spell has caused devastation across the country. The losses, though yet to be documented, are comaprable to flash floods of 2010. Grateful to the international community for their symapthies, condolences & pledges of support. Together we will build back better.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) August 26, 2022
He said that as per the initial damage assessment, the losses caused by the floods were comparable to those Pakistan suffered during the flash floods of 2010-11.
The meeting was attended by ambassadors and high commissioners of Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Kuwait, UAE, Turkiye, South Korea, USA, Germany and senior diplomats of Bahrain, European Union, France, Oman, Qatar, UK, and Saudi Arabia. The country representative of World Food Program was also present.
The prime minister underlined that 33 million people had been badly affected by the flash floods and torrential rainfalls.
While expressing his government’s firm resolve to overcome the deleterious impacts of the ongoing floods in the country, Shehbaz Sharif highlighted that he had already issued instructions to the federal and provincial governments to provide people with tents, drinking water, mosquito nets, food items, medicines and other equipment.
He said that Pakistan’s carbon emission footprint was negligible but it was ranked at the 8th position among the countries exposed to the horrors of climate change.
Noting that the climate change has made flooding worse, the prime minister emphasized rehabilitation and reconstruction of climate resilient infrastructure in Pakistan.
Army called amid flood threat
The Interior Ministry has approved the deployment of the Pakistan Army owing to a flood emergency. Pakistan Army troops will be deployed in all four provinces to help the civil government in the relief operation.
The government decided to deploy the army in all provinces to help the civilian authorities in rescue operations in the calamity-hit areas.
At present, more than half of Pakistan is under water and millions of people have been rendered homeless as a result of flash flooding generated by abnormal monsoon rains which have entered their eighth spell with no signs of subsiding.
A notification issued to this effect said that the exact number of troops and area of deployment will be worked out by the respective provincial governments in consultation with the military operations directorate and General Headquarters.
“…The date of de-requisitioning of said deployment will be decided subsequently after mutual consultation among all stakeholders,” the notification read.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the Punjab government had requisitioned the army’s deployment in Dera Ghazi Khan, while KP wanted the army’s assistance in Dera Ismail Khan. Balochistan sought the deployment of the personnel in Nasirabad, Jhal Magsi, Sohbatpur, Jafarabad and Lasbela districts while Sindh also sought the military’s help in the flood-hit districts.
