These are the devastating effects Pakistan’s deadly floods are having on the country.
In what Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman called the “monstrous monsoon of the decade,” torrential rains have killed at least 982 people in the region since June, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
Every 24 hours, the agency lists hundreds of men, women and children who have been injured or killed by collapsed roofs, flash floods or drowning.
“Pakistan is living through a serious climate disaster, the worst in a decade,” Rahman said in a Twitter video. “We are, at the moment, at ground zero for extreme weather events in a continuous cascade of heat waves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events and now a decade of monstrous monsoons, wreaking non-stop devastation across the country.
The unprecedented flooding — worse than Pakistan’s 2010 “superflood” that affected 20 million people — has overwhelmed the country’s resources, prompting leaders to urge the international community to help relief efforts.
Sindh, one of the worst-hit provinces, has requested 1 million tents for its displaced residents, Rahman told Reuters. But there are not enough tents, he said, and people are taking shelter in makeshift shelters in school buildings and mosques.
The roads are filled with sewage water and the fear of water borne diseases is high.
“This is clearly the climate crisis of the decade,” Rahman said. “Through no fault of our own,” he said, Pakistan emits less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Global warming is causing Pakistan’s 7,000 glaciers – the largest number outside the poles – to melt, leading to glacial lake outbursts triggered by heat waves in the country.
This year, extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and floods are affecting every part of the world.
In Africa, floods have taken a devastating toll on tens of thousands of people in Chad and Gambia, while some 4.6 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are threatened by severe malnutrition following a severe drought in the region, the UN office said. For coordination of humanitarian affairs.
Meanwhile, in Europe, drought-induced water levels are exposing underwater artefacts, while three ancient Buddha statues have been resurfaced after water levels fell in China’s Yangtze River. And in Dallas, a summer’s worth of rain in one day amid a drought in Texas wreaked havoc on the city.
Climate disasters such as drought are inextricably linked to human-induced climate change. According to NASA, the planet has already warmed 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, and that could make disasters worse. Stopping this vicious cycle requires drastically reducing our dependence on climate-polluting fossil fuels.
