Following massive floods, Pakistani authorities are battling to keep the nation’s largest lake from overflowing its banks and drowning neighbouring towns, and the disaster management agency on Monday increased the number of flood fatalities by another 24.
According to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency, record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the northern mountains of Pakistan caused floods that affected 33 million people and claimed at least 1,314, including 458 children.
The government and the UN have both blamed climate change for the harsh weather and the destruction it has brought. The floods followed record-breaking summer temperatures.
Authorities on Sunday broke Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes in the goal of draining enough water to stop the lake bursting its banks and swamping more densely populated areas.
However, the lake’s water levels continue to be dangerously high in Sindh, a province in southern Pakistan, to the west of the Indus river.
According to provincial irrigation minister Jam Khan Shoro, the water level at Manchar Lake has not decreased.
He did not disclose whether or if there would be another attempt to empty the lake of water.
A significant humanitarian crisis has resulted from the floods, and authorities are especially worried about the welfare of expectant mothers and new mothers.
Only 891 of the nearly 400,000 pregnant women who were displaced by the floods in Sindh’s severely devastated region made it to relief camps, according to data from the provincial government released on Friday.
For an economy that already requires assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the relief effort is a tremendous strain.
The cost of the damage, according to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, was much higher than the $160 million requested by the UN to assist the flood victims.
Ismail stated in an interview that “the entire loss is close to $10 billion, possibly more.”
“Clearly it is not enough. Despite its limited resources, Pakistan would be required to carry out the majority of the work.”
Nevertheless, outside assistance is coming.
On Monday, relief flights from the United Nations and nations like Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates arrived, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.
In other parts of the region, floods are also affecting Sri Lanka, which is in a crisis, while rains have disturbed life in Bengaluru, India’s technology powerhouse.
In most of Asia, the rainy season is the northern summer.
