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Floods in Pakistan: thousands of residents asked to evacuate their homes as soon as possible

2022-08-27T14:02:57.357Z


The monsoon rains have already claimed almost 1,000 lives, a million homes are damaged and the peak is not expected until Sunday. From i


The worst is to be feared Sunday in northern Pakistan.

The devastating monsoon rains have already killed nearly 1,000 people.

On Saturday, thousands of people living near flooded rivers were ordered to evacuate their homes.

Numerous rivers in Khyber Pahktunkhwa province - criss-crossed by mountains and steep valleys - overflowed and destroyed dozens of buildings, including a 150-room hotel washed away by raging waters.

“The house we had built after years of hard work has disappeared before our eyes,” lamented Junaid Khan, 23, owner of two fish farms in Charsadda.

"We sat on the side of the road and watched our dream house sink," he added.

One in seven Pakistanis affected

The monsoon, which usually lasts from June to September, is essential for the irrigation of plantations and to replenish the water resources of the Indian subcontinent.

But it also brings its share of drama and destruction each year.

More than 33 million people - one in seven Pakistanis - have been affected by the floods and nearly a million homes have been destroyed or severely damaged, according to the government.

Solifluction under a building during a flood in Pakistan which affects 33 million people and has already killed 935 people.

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— Pr. Logos (@Pr_Logos) August 27, 2022

On Saturday, authorities ordered thousands of residents of Swat district to evacuate their homes before the rivers burst their banks.

“At first some people refused to leave, but when the water level rose they accepted,” said Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the emergency services.

According to the authorities, these bad weather are comparable to those of 2010, year during which 2000 people had been killed and nearly a fifth of the country submerged by the rains.

Climate change involved, says Islamabad

Shah Faisal, a roadside farmer from Charsadda with his wife and two daughters, also saw his house swallowed up by a river as the powerful current eroded the bank.

Here, the Jindi, Swat and Kabul rivers flow through narrow gorges in the city before joining the Indus, which also overflows downstream.

"We escaped death," said the farmer.

Families have found temporary shelter along the roads.

AFP/Abdul MAJEED.

AFP or licensors

Pakistani officials attribute the devastating weather to climate change, saying Pakistan is unfairly suffering the consequences of irresponsible environmental practices elsewhere in the world.

Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

It is in 8th position of the countries most threatened by extreme weather phenomena, according to a study by the NGO Germanwatch.

However, the inhabitants also have their share of responsibility for the damage caused.

Corruption and poorly planned urban planning have led to the construction of thousands of buildings in flood-prone areas.

The government declared a state of emergency on Friday and mobilized the army to deal with this “catastrophe of a rare magnitude”, as Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman called it.

A disaster in a context of crisis

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), since the start of the monsoon in June, floods have ravaged more than 80,000 hectares of crops, destroyed 3,100 km of roads and washed away 149 bridges.

In Sukkur, more than 1,000 km south of Swat, agricultural land irrigated by the Indus River was under water and tens of thousands of people took refuge on elevated roads and highways.

30 million people affected and at least 900 dead following catastrophic floods in Pakistan.



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— franceinfo plus (@franceinfoplus) August 27, 2022

“We have opened the floodgates wide” at the major Sukkur dam on the Indus, said its supervisor, Aziz Soomro, adding that the peak of the flood was expected for Sunday.

The floods come at the worst time for Pakistan, whose economy is collapsing and which has been in deep political crisis since Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in April following a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly .

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2022-08-27

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