Pakistan floods

Pakistan floods: Minister estimates disaster will cost over $10 billion

• Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan is estimated to have caused at least $10bn in damage, according to the country's planning minister.

• He made the statement shortly after another government minister announced that a third of South Asian countries had drowned.

• Pakistan received $1.1 billion in rescue aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday.

 The purpose of financing is to prevent a debt-laden economy from defaulting.

1. At least 1,136 people have died and more than 33 million people, or more than 15% of the country's population, have been affected by massive flooding from historic monsoon rains.
2. Torrential rains also destroyed bridges, crops, houses and other infrastructure, including roads.
3. Muftah Ismail, Pakistan's finance minister, suggested that Pakistan should consider importing vegetables from its archenemy India to help with food shortages.
4. Sherry Rehman, the country's climate change minister, called the situation a "climate-driven human catastrophe of epic proportions."

 

Pakistan was in the midst of an economic crisis and was in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a rescue plan even before the floods.

In light of the News country's faltering economy and an annual inflation rate of around 25%, official data released in recent weeks revealed that the country only had enough foreign exchange in reserve to cover almost a month of imports.

Minister: A third of the country is under water.

Roads, houses and crops have been destroyed by devastating floods in Pakistan, leaving a trail of carnage and death in their wake.

Sherry Rehman described the situation as a "crisis of unimaginable proportions" and said: "It's a huge ocean, there is no dry land to pump water from."

 The administration attributes torrential summer rains, the heaviest in a decade, to climate change.

Pakistan is underwater right now, it has crossed all the thresholds, all the standards that we have seen in the past."

"We have never seen anything like this," the minister said.

Authorities said Monday that of those known to have died, 75 have done so in the past 24 hours alone, with more deaths expected.

 

Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari believes a third of the dead were minors.

He said: “We are still coming to terms with the enormity of the destruction.

One in seven Pakistanis, according to official estimates, has been affected by the catastrophic floods.

Flash floods in the Swat Valley in the north of the country have destroyed bridges and roads, isolating entire settlements.

Despite thousands of residents in the mountainous area asking to leave, officials still had trouble reaching the stranded, even with the help of helicopters.

 

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said "all communities have been destroyed and several million homes have been damaged" after boarding a helicopter over the area on Sunday.

Those who managed to escape were herded into one of the many makeshift camps set up across the country.

"It's unpleasant to live here. It's about our self-respect," Fazal Malik, one of the flood victims, told AFP from a school in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that was home to some 2,500 evacuees.

 Summary:

In many rural areas, infrastructure was already minimal. Many paths are not numbered and some bridges have worn down due to lack of care over the years.

But the issue is more complex than infrastructure.

The horror unleashed from the sky, according to Pakistani authorities who had faced floods many times before, was beyond what they could have expected.