Floods in Pakistan: Trapped in the mountains, with boats in the plains

Helicopters are trying to evacuate people trapped in the mountains, in the north of Pakistan, while in the south residents move around in boats in the flooded plains. Authorities mobilized every means at their disposal to help millions of people affected by the worst floods in the country’s history.

A third of Pakistan has been submerged under water and 1,191 people have lost their lives, according to the latest count. Vast tracts of agricultural land, crucial to the country’s economy, have been flooded, farms have been destroyed and more than a million homes have been severely damaged or completely lost in the waters.

“Pakistan is awash in grief. The Pakistani people are facing a cataclysmic monsoon,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, appealing for $160 million to fund a program to support the population over the next six months.

The World Health Organization declared the country on alert and released $10 million in emergency aid. More than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “the worst floods in Pakistan’s history”. His government estimates that at least $10 billion will be needed to restore infrastructure, especially in the areas of telecommunications, roads and agriculture.

The priority, however, remains to get aid to the people stranded in the mountains and valleys of the north and the isolated villages of southern and western Pakistan.

“We are in desperate need of help,” said Muhammad Amir, whose village of Balakot is now inaccessible by road after the Swat River overflowed in the northwest. “We need medicine,” he added. “There has been no electricity in the village for a week. People don’t even have candles to light. Many have diarrhea,” he continued.

The WHO warns of the risk of diseases due to contaminated water (skin diseases, respiratory problems, diarrhea, dengue fever…), in a country that is simultaneously facing a shortage of health personnel and medical supplies.

At a makeshift clinic in Sindh, to the south, doctors tended to patients who had to walk there barefoot through dirty, muddy water amid various debris. “My child’s leg hurts a lot. And my legs too,” said 23-year-old Azra Babro, who came all the way there seeking help.

According to meteorologists, Pakistan received twice the usual amount of rain this summer. In the southern provinces (Balochistan and Sindh) the amount of rain was four times the average of the last 30 years.

Pakistan is highly dependent on agriculture and with this disaster the prices of many products (onions, tomatoes, lentils…) have gone up. The prime minister promised that international aid would be spent “transparently” and all money would go “to those in need”.

The US announced on Tuesday that it would send humanitarian aid worth a total of $30 million.

At the same time, makeshift camps are popping up more or less everywhere, to temporarily accommodate the displaced, who have to deal with the heat and the lack of drinking water and food at the same time.

RES-EMP

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