Flooding caused by torrential monsoon rains have claimed more than 1,100 lives in Pakistan since June, while millions have been left stranded and desperate for immediate aid.
Pakistan has received nearly three times the national 30-year average this season. A third of the nation’s land is under water, and more than 33 million Pakistanis, nearly 14 percent of the population, have been affected by the ongoing deluge, according to the United Nations and the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan.
About 735,000 livestock have been lost and more than 2 million acres of farmlands have been damaged — a significant toll for Pakistan’s agricultural sector, which accounts for almost a fifth of the nation’s GDP and employs more than a third of the nation’s workers.
Pakistan’s top climate official, Sherry Rehman, called the crisis a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.”
“Pakistan was already facing the disastrous effects of climate change,” Rehman said at a news conference Thursday. “Now the most devastating monsoon rains in a decade are causing incessant destruction across the country.”
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