A third of Pakistan is submerged under water, the waterways have become monsters carrying everything in their way of buildings, houses, bridges, fields, men and women who could not escape in time, the government declares a state of emergency and asks for help from the international community, the army is deployed, but the situation is catastrophic and the challenge is enormous.

This is how the Swiss newspaper "Le Temps" and the French magazine "L'Obs", in two separate reports, portrayed Pakistan, which has been suffering from floods for 3 months, during which more than 1,130 people were killed and one million homes and 80,000 hectares of agricultural land were destroyed. Millions of people became homeless, without food or drinking water, and more than 800,000 head of livestock died.

Climate Change Minister Sherry Rahman said, in a chilling note - as described by Loops magazine - that a third of Pakistan's population is "submerged in water", explaining that there is a "crisis of unimaginable proportions", and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif declared that this monsoon rains "is unimaginable." unprecedented 30 years ago, and the government promised 25,000 rupees (114 euros) to each affected family."

This is how the situation looked in Peshawar (Anatolia)

Transport people to safety

"This is the end of the world, I have never in my life seen such devastation," said Faisal Amin Gandapur, government minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has been hardest hit in recent days.

But the most urgent thing is to shelter the people."

The minister said they have set up "emergency camps on the heights, where food is brought by helicopter. Life here is miserable. Our self-esteem is at stake. There is no place to shower, no ventilation."

Today, the two newspapers indicated that the United Nations and the Pakistani government will launch a formal appeal for donations of $160 million to fund emergency aid, noting that a huge relief operation is underway in the country, as international aid is slowly starting to arrive.

These floods come - according to Lobs newspaper - at the worst time for Pakistan, whose economy is in crisis, noting that the International Monetary Fund will meet in Washington on Monday to agree to resume a $6 billion loan program for Pakistan, which will undoubtedly need more, to rebuild infrastructure. devastated by the floods.

Rescue operations used all available means (Reuters)

Bad weather after a heat wave

Two phenomena linked to global warming, as Lotan points out, are the accelerating melting of glaciers, and with it seasonal rains that are much higher than usual, have combined to turn dozens of streams flowing from mountains into giant rivers laden with mud, wood and the remains of infrastructure that destroyed them on their way, reaching dry soil after A long heat wave hit Pakistan and India, where temperatures peaked at 51 degrees Celsius.

In the coming hours, the authorities fear a new flood in the Indus River, whose level continues to rise, and Climate Change Minister Sherry Rahman summed up the seriousness of the situation, saying, “We are now at the center of extreme weather events, in an relentless series of heat waves, forest fires, flash floods and thaws.” Glacial lakes, and now wild monsoons are causing havoc across the country."

Pakistani officials, according to Lopes, attribute the devastating weather to climate change, saying that Pakistan is suffering from the consequences of irresponsible environmental practices elsewhere in the world.

Despite the current floods, there are fears that the Indus River will overflow (Getty Images)

Fifth country vulnerable to climate change

In its 2020 report, Germanwatch ranked Pakistan - with a population of 220 million - as the fifth country vulnerable to climate change, due to its geographical location, as it is threatened from the north by melting glaciers and rising sea levels, with Rising temperatures, which, according to Lotan, could lose a third of the 7,200 glaciers located in the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges.

"Pakistan is literally caught in the eye of a climate storm. This is not just an environmental challenge, but a matter of human survival and the country's national security," Lotan concluded.