Pakistan floods hit 33m people

More than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, are estimated to have been affected by deadly flooding, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif describing the disaster as the “toughest moment” in Pakistan’s history.

The summer rain is the “heaviest recorded in a decade”, reported the BBC, and government ministers are claiming that Pakistan is paying the price for global climate change. “We are suffering from it but it is not our fault at all,” Sharif told a press conference on Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the South Asian nation had been devastated by a “monsoon on steroids” and the “climate catastrophe” had killed “more than 1,000 people, with many more injured”.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“South Asia is one of the world’s global climate crisis hotspots,” he told a news conference, adding that people living in the “hotspots” are 15 times more likely to die from the impact of changing climates.

The UN chief launched an urgent humanitarian appeal to member countries for $160m, which would be used to support the government’s response to the disaster and provide 5.2 million people with food, water, sanitation, emergency education, protection and support.

A third of Pakistan is believed to be underwater, with the floods estimated to have caused over $10bn in damages, reported ITV News. The National Disaster Management Authority said the death toll from the monsoon rains and floods had reached 1,136.

Around half a million of those displaced are living in organised camps, said The Guardian, while others have had to find their own shelter.

Pakistan is responsible for “less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases”, said CNN, but is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

“Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change,” said Guterres. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”