SEHWAN, Pakistan, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Parts of Pakistan looked “like a sea”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday, after visiting some of the flood-hit areas covering up to a third of the southern nation Asia. where 18 more deaths took the toll from the rainy days to 1,343. As many as 33 million out of a population of 220 million have been affected in a climate change-driven disaster that has left hundreds of thousands homeless and caused at least $10 billion in damage, officials estimate. “You wouldn’t believe the extent of the devastation there,” Sharif told media after a visit to the southern province of Sindh. “It’s water everywhere as far as you can see. It’s just like the sea.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The government, which has increased cash donations for flood victims to 70 billion Pakistani rupees ($313.90 million), will buy 200,000 tents to house displaced families, he added. Receding waters threaten a new challenge in the form of water-borne infectious diseases, Sharif said. “We will need trillions of rupees to deal with this disaster.” The United Nations has requested $160 million in aid to help flood victims. A man rows his boat as he wades through a flooded market after monsoon rains and floods in Bajara village on the banks of Lake Manchar in Sehwan, Pakistan September 6, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro read more Many of those affected are from Sindh, where Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake is dangerously close to bursting its banks even after it was breached in an operation that displaced 100,000 people. National disaster officials said eight children were among the dead in the past 24 hours. The floods were caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains. The raging waters have swept away 1.6 million homes, 5,735 km (3,564 miles) of transport links, 750,000 head of livestock and inundated more than 2 million acres (809,370 hectares) of agricultural land. Officials in Sindh expect the waters to recede in the coming days, provincial government spokesman Murtaza Wahab said. “Our strategy right now is to be prepared to grow wheat once the water recedes,” he added. But with more rain expected next month, the situation could worsen further, a senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned. Already, the World Health Organization has said that more than 6.4 million people need humanitarian support in the flooded areas. Pakistan has received nearly 190% more rainfall than the 30-year average in July and August, a total of 391 mm (15.4 in), with Sindh receiving 466% more than average. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan in Sehwan and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad. Is Alasdair Pal writing? Edited by Clarence Fernandez Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
