ISLAMABAD: At least 77 individuals have died in monsoon rains lashing Pakistan, the country’s climate change minister stated Wednesday (Jul 6), warning more heavier-than-usual downpours lay ahead.
“For me, it’s a nationwide tragedy, ” Sherry Rehman told a news conference in the capital, adding the toll was extracted from Jun 14, when the monsoon started.
“When people die like that, it’s not a small thing… It is just the start. We have to prepare for this. ”
Most of the deaths were in the southwestern province associated with Balochistan, where 39 people drowned or were electrocuted by downed power lines.
The monsoon, which usually lasts through June to September, is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year also brings a wave of destruction.
Poorly built homes across Pakistan : particularly in countryside areas – are susceptible to collapse in floods, which also destroy huge tracts of prime farmland.
The worst floods of recent times had been in 2010 – addressing almost a fifth of the country’s landmass – killing nearly 2, 000 individuals and displacing twenty million.
Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to the Global Climate Danger Index compiled by environmental NGO Germanwatch.
“One day you have drought and next early morning you are expecting display flood… so you can see how serious the situation is in Pakistan”, Rehman mentioned.
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