The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) says that at least 119 people died in floods over the weekend. This means that at least 1,061 people have died in floods in Pakistan since June.
Since the middle of June, the monsoon rains have affected over 33 million people, and CNN reports that a third of the country may now be under water. The provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh are shown to be the hardest hit here. Early assessments point to the loss of 949,858 dwellings.
Also demolished were 149 bridges and 3,451 kilometers of highways, making it more difficult to reach people in need of help. The military and navy have been sent in after a state of emergency was declared.
In a video shared on Twitter, Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's federal Minister for Climate Change, described the event as a "major climate calamity, one of the harshest in the decade." "We are at ground zero of the front line of extreme weather events," she said. "Heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, repeated glacial lake outbursts, flood events, and now the monster monsoon of the decade are wreaking havoc all over the country."
Faster glaciers melt in the north is a result of rapid global warming, accelerated by human activities, especially in the global north. This monsoon has been especially dangerous because of the runoff and the fact that it has rained so much.
Even though Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world's carbon emissions, Al Jazeera says it is one of the countries most affected by climate change.
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| UNOCHA/Statista |
