Death Toll Nears 1,000, 30 Million Displaced In Pakistan Floods Driven By Monsoons, Glacial Melt
The Pakistan government has declared devastating floods a “national emergency” after nearly 1,000 people died and more than 30 million are without shelter as monsoon rains continue to lash the South Asian nation. At least 937 people have died since mid-June, including 343 children, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), with large swaths of the southwestern province of Balochistan remaining submerged, bringing back the memory of the devastating 2010 floods.
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“Pakistan is going through its 8th cycle of monsoon; normally the country has only three to four cycles of [monsoon] rain,” the minister said during her news conference in Islamabad. “Pakistan is under an unprecedented monsoon spell and data suggests the possibility of re-emergence of another cycle in September,” she said. Two of the worst-hit provinces – Balochistan and Sindh – have received 298mm and 689mm rains respectively this year, which is about 400 percent more than the 30-year average.
Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an Islamabad-based independent expert on climate change, said earlier floods were riverine in nature, but lack of development planning and climate change were causing the recent flood-related crisis in the country.
“In 2010, the floods were riverine in nature, which means they mostly impacted areas around the Indus River and they were mostly predictable. This time, there are multiple types such as urban flood, flash flooding and floods caused by glacier burst,” he told Al Jazeera by telephone.
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/26/pakistan-floods