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Pakistan Continues Battling Flooding As International Aid Begins Arriving [1]
['Rfe Rl']
Date: 2022-09
Authorities in Pakistan continue to battle massive flooding as the United Nations refugee agency rushes aid to the stricken country, one-third of which is said to be underwater.
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority on September 5 raised the death toll in the disaster to 1,314, including 458 children. More than 33 million people have been affected by the flooding, which has been cause by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers.
On September 4, authorities breached a levy on Pakistan's largest freshwater lake, Lake Manchar, in an effort to reduce water levels and keep it from swamping densely populated areas, including the city of Sehwan.
However, officials said on September 5 that water levels in the lake remained perilously high.
"The water level at Lake Manchar has not come down," Jam Khan Shoro, a minister in Sindh Province, said.
The same day, two planes loaded with aid from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, landed in Karachi, with two more expected later in the day. A separate plane with aid from Turkmenistan also arrived in the southern port city. Planes carrying aid from other countries were also expected in Pakistan.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world to stop "sleepwalking" through the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Guterres plans to visit the flooded areas on September 9.
The Pakistani government and the United Nations have attributed the extreme weather to climate change. The floods followed record-high summer temperatures across Pakistan.
Hard-hit Sindh and Balochistan provinces have received rainfall almost six times their respective 30-year averages this year.
The NDMA has said some 6,000 kilometers of roads, 246 bridges, and about 1.6 million homes have been damaged or destroyed since the monsoons began in June. In addition, crops and livestock have been wiped out.
Access to safe drinking water has become an acute issue in many areas.
The government has said it will cost $10 billion and take many years for the country to cope with the disaster.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
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