Sarah in Pakistan: "If the rains continue, a third of the country will sink under water" | Israel today

New satellite images of Pakistan show just how extreme this year's monsoon season has been in the country.

Entire parts of the province of Sindh, which borders the Indus River, turned into a lake of water a hundred kilometers long.

According to Pakistani authorities, the current monsoon season, which still has a full month of rain to fall, has dropped precipitation at a level 500 percent above average, causing entire areas of the country to go under water.

A street that became a flowing river in Pakistan, photo: AP

Shari Rehman, the country's climate change minister, said in relation to this this week: "Whole parts of Pakistan now resemble a small ocean and by the time the rainy season is over, a quarter or a third of Pakistan could be under water."

As mentioned, the current monsoon season has been defined by the United Nations as a monsoon season on steroids, and it is considered the wettest recorded since accurate records began in the country in 1961.

A woman and a girl in a flooded street in Pakistan, photo: AFP

And it's not just damage to property, so far since the middle of June when the rains started, 1,162 people have been killed in floods and inundations and another 3,554 have been injured while the rains are affecting 33 million people all over the country.

The biggest manifestation of the heavy rains that have hit the country can be seen from space by NASA's MODIS satellite images. The satellite images show areas of southern Sindh province under water, a reality that was never seen before.

In connection with this, in an interview with the CNN network, Pakistan's foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said: "I visited the province of Sindh and saw how the floods displaced entire villages and towns. There is hardly any dry land in the province to be found. It is difficult to contain the scale of this tragedy, 33 million people who are refugees More than the entire population of Sri Lanka or Australia."

Civilians struggle to get food aid during the floods in Pakistan, photo: AP

The minister referred to the fact that the monsoon is a result of the change in weather and expressed great concern regarding the future in his country.

"We understand that weather changes mean climate changes, and heat waves and heavier monsoons anyway. But the scale of the current flood is of apocalyptic proportions. We certainly hope that this is not the new climate of our reality all along."

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