SEHWAN: Parts of Pakistan appeared “like a sea,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday after visiting some of the flood-hit districts that span up to a third of the South Asian nation, where 18 more deaths brought the toll from days of rain to 1,343.
Officials believe that as many as 33 million people out of a population of 220 million have been touched by a calamity blamed on climate change, which has left hundreds of thousands homeless and generated losses of at least $10 billion.
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“You wouldn’t believe the magnitude of destruction there,” Prime Minister Shehbaz said after visiting Sindh’s southern province. “Water was everywhere as far as the eye could see. It’s exactly like the sea.”
He added that the government, which has increased cash assistance to flood victims to 70 billion Pakistani rupees ($313.90 million), will purchase 200,000 tents to shelter displaced families.
Receding waters pose a new hazard in the form of water-borne infectious diseases, according to PM Shehbaz.
“We will require trillions of rupees to deal with this disaster.”
The United Nations has requested $160 million in funding to assist flood victims.
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Many of those affected are from Sindh, where Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake is dangerously near to bursting its banks, despite being broken in an operation that evacuated 100,000 people.
According to national disaster officials, eight youngsters have died in the last 24 hours. Flooding was caused by heavy monsoon rainfall and glacier melt in Pakistan’s northern mountains.
With additional rain forecast in the coming month, a top UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official has warned that the situation could worsen.
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Already, the World Health Organization has stated that more than 6.4 million people in flooded areas require humanitarian assistance.
The surging waters have destroyed 1.6 million homes, 5,735 kilometres (3,564 miles) of transportation infrastructure, 750,000 head of livestock, and drowned more than 2 million acres (809,370 hectares) of farmland.
In July and August, Pakistan got over 190% more rain than the 30-year average, totaling 391 mm (15.4 inches), with Sindh receiving 466% more rain than the usual.