A low pressure system from India will bring more rain for Sindh and Balochistan till Friday, the Pakistan Met Department said Wednesday night.
The chief minister of Balochistan decided to give civil servants and law enforcers one month’s salary in a cash award, as people in the province struggled to cope with the destruction.
A Well-marked low pressure (LPA) located over east Rajasthan (India) is likely to move northwest direction and approach Sindh tonight. Due to this strong weather system monsoon currents are penetrating in southern and upper parts of the country.#Monsoon2022 #FloodsInPakistan pic.twitter.com/ZqVSWYtfpM
— Pak Met Department محکمہ موسمیات (@pmdgov) August 24, 2022
Local body elections schedule for August 28 have been put off in Sindh’s districts (Hyderabad, Badin, Karachi among others).
The rail service to Quetta has been suspended to the rest of the country, the RCD highway is closed and main arteries across Sindh and Balochistan are broken, making it difficult for aid to reach.
Pakistan’s death toll has risen to 903, said the NDMA. Over 72,340 houses have been destroyed and 3,037km of roads damaged since June 14. Over 700,000 cattleheads have been killed.
Pakistan has urged the international community to help with relief efforts, Reuters reported. More than 800 deaths have been reported and the damage to infrastructure is beyond the scope of the government.
The monsoon 2022 has come at a time when Pakistan is already strapped for cash and was forced to go to the IMF for a loan.
July’s national rainfall was almost 200% above average, Sardar Sarfaraz, a senior official at the metrological office told Reuters on Wednesday, making it the wettest July since 1961.
“No question of the provinces or Islamabad being able to cope with this magnitude of climate catastrophe on their own. Lives are at risk, thousands homeless. Int’l partners need to mobilise assistance,” said Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister for Climate Change in a tweet.
According to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, heavy monsoon rainfall and floods have affected some 2.3 million people in Pakistan since mid-June, destroying at least 95,350 houses and damaging a further 224,100.
Sindh and Balochistan are the two most affected provinces. More than 504,000 livestock have been killed, nearly all of them in Balochistan, while damage to nearly 3,000 km of roads and 129 bridges has impeded movement around flood-affected areas.
The main supply route from Karachi has been cut for more than a week after a bridge linking it to Balochistan was swept away, while dozens of small dams in the province were overwhelmed.
“The federal government has also appealed to the international development partners for assistance, so reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by the flooding can be started once the water recedes,” Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives said in a twitter post.
In Sindh, the government closed all educational institutions in anticipation of fresh rain forecast for Wednesday and Thursday and an airport in the Nawabshah district remains closed with the airfield almost fully submerged.
“It is a climate catastrophe of epic scale, bringing in its wake the humanitarian crisis that could well match the magnitude of the big flood that was witnessed in 2010,” said Rehman.
