Pakistan: 937 killed, 33 mn affected by decade-worst floods

Islamabad: Terming the current floods as the worst humanitarian crisis of the decade, Pakistan's climate change minister Sherry Rehman on Thursday said that over 33 million people have been affected by the deadly floods. At least 937 people have died since Mid-June in Pakistan which is witnessing the worst flooding in a decade due to heavy rainfall caused by climate change. 

Sherry Rehman called the floods "unprecedented" and "the worst humanitarian disaster of this decade. "Pakistan is going through its eighth cycle of monsoon while normally the country has only three to four cycles of rain," Rehman said. 

Relief operations are being carried out by the NDMA, Pakistan Army and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority to assist the affected people. The floods have displaced lakhs of people in the country.

"The southern province of Sindh has been badly hit by the flooding and needs one million tents, while nearby Balochistan province has requested for 100,000 tents,  Rehman added." She said that Sindh has received 784 per cent more rainfall this month than the August average, while the province of Balochistan had received nearly 500 per cent more. "Twenty-three districts of Sindh have been declared calamity-hit," she added. 

She urged the international community to provide aid given Pakistan`s "limited" resources. Meanwhile, the UN agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that the monsoon rains had affected some 3 million people in Pakistan of which 184,000 have been displaced to relief camps across the country. 

Funding and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for cash-strapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure that the International Monetary Fund approves the release of much-needed bailout money.