Pakistan’s government has appealed for international help to tackle a flooding emergency that has killed more than 1,000 people and threatens to leave a third of the country – an area roughly the size of Britain – underwater.
Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday night that floods brought on by weeks of extreme monsoonal rainfall and melting glaciers would worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid was needed.
‘People are getting sick’: destitution in flood-hit Pakistan
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“Going forward, I would expect not only the International Monetary Fund, but the international community and international agencies to truly grasp the level of devastation,” he said.
“I haven’t seen destruction of this scale, I find it very difficult to put into words ... it is overwhelming,” he said. Many crops that provided much of the population’s livelihoods had been wiped out, he added.
“Obviously this will have an effect on the overall economic situation,” he said.
The south Asian nation is facing high inflation, a depreciating currency and a current account deficit, and Bhutto-Zardari said he hoped the flooding emergency would persuade the IMF’s board this week to release $1.2bn as part of the seventh and eighth tranches of Pakistan’s bailout programme.
The first foreign aid was beginning to trickle into Pakistan on Monday on flights from Turkey and UAE – the start of a huge relief operation to alleviate a disaster that has affected around 33 million people and left swathes of the country inundated.
At least 1,061 people have now died in the deluges and that toll is set to rise further, with many communities in the mountainous northern regions cut off by flood-swollen rivers that washed away roads and bridges.
The army’s helicopters were struggling to pluck people to safety in the north, where steep hills and valleys make for treacherous flying conditions.
Many rivers in the area – a picturesque tourist destination – have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings, including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent.
It came as the country’s climate minister warned that one-third of Pakistan could be underwater by the time this year’s “monster monsoon” recedes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...nsoon-could-put-a-third-of-country-underwater
Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday night that floods brought on by weeks of extreme monsoonal rainfall and melting glaciers would worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid was needed.
‘People are getting sick’: destitution in flood-hit Pakistan
Read more
“Going forward, I would expect not only the International Monetary Fund, but the international community and international agencies to truly grasp the level of devastation,” he said.
“I haven’t seen destruction of this scale, I find it very difficult to put into words ... it is overwhelming,” he said. Many crops that provided much of the population’s livelihoods had been wiped out, he added.
“Obviously this will have an effect on the overall economic situation,” he said.
The south Asian nation is facing high inflation, a depreciating currency and a current account deficit, and Bhutto-Zardari said he hoped the flooding emergency would persuade the IMF’s board this week to release $1.2bn as part of the seventh and eighth tranches of Pakistan’s bailout programme.
The first foreign aid was beginning to trickle into Pakistan on Monday on flights from Turkey and UAE – the start of a huge relief operation to alleviate a disaster that has affected around 33 million people and left swathes of the country inundated.
At least 1,061 people have now died in the deluges and that toll is set to rise further, with many communities in the mountainous northern regions cut off by flood-swollen rivers that washed away roads and bridges.
The army’s helicopters were struggling to pluck people to safety in the north, where steep hills and valleys make for treacherous flying conditions.
Many rivers in the area – a picturesque tourist destination – have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings, including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent.
It came as the country’s climate minister warned that one-third of Pakistan could be underwater by the time this year’s “monster monsoon” recedes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...nsoon-could-put-a-third-of-country-underwater
