Due to what the head of the UN called “monsoon on steroids,” more than one-third of Pakistan is currently under water. Since mid-June, the flood-stricken nation has had ten times more rainfall than average.
The flood that has affected more than 33 million people in Pakistan and claimed more than 1,100 lives is seen in the satellite photos provided by the European Space Agency. One of the greatest floods in the nation’s history has destroyed homes, agricultural lands, and infrastructure.
Satellite photographs show that an overflowing Indus River has essentially formed a large lake that is tens of kilometres wide. Where the land is inundated is indicated by the blue to black colours in the image that the ESA provided after mapping the data that Copernicus Sentinel-1 collected from orbit.
Shehbaz Sharif, the new prime minister of Pakistan after Imran Khan was ousted due to the country’s economic difficulties, estimated that it would take at least $10 billion to fix the infrastructure. Due to the enormous floods, Pakistan is currently experiencing a food and health crisis.
“As the waters continue to rise, saving and protecting lives is currently our top concern. The scale of these floods has resulted in shocking levels of destruction, including the destruction of crops and the death of livestock across vast swathes of the nation, which will lead to increased hunger “said Saleh Saeed, the leader of the Disasters Emergency Committee, a coalition of aid organisations based in the UK.
The World Health Organization has declared the flood a “highest level” emergency and issued a warning about the potential for a rapid spread of disease as a result of the lack of access to medical care.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, warned that the loss of crops and livestock will have a significant impact on the nutrition and health of many communities who depend on these resources, noting that the flooding has caused new outbreaks of diarrheal diseases, skin infections, respiratory tract infections, malaria, and dengue.
