Millions evacuated in Pakistan due to floods

Flood-affected people wait to receive food aid in Khyber Province.

AFP

Pakistani officials said that rescue teams in southern Pakistan made efforts yesterday to evacuate millions of people from remote villages, as the region anxiously awaited the arrival of rainwater from the north of the country.

The provincial government spokesman, Murtaza Wahab, said rescue efforts in Sindh province, which was the worst affected province in a series of floods since mid-June, were supported by helicopters and military boats.

"It's a race against time," said Wahab, who was supervising the evacuation.

"At least a third of Pakistan - an area roughly the size of Britain - has been under water for weeks," said Pakistan's Climate Minister Sherry Rehman.

The Minister described the floods as a climate-induced catastrophe of enormous proportions, posing an existential threat to Pakistan.

For his part, Pakistani Minister of Planning Ehsan Iqbal said: “About 45% of the country’s agricultural land was destroyed due to floods, with the total amount of losses amounting to about 10 billion dollars.

In a related context, the environmental expert, Qamar Zaman Choudhury, said: "Everything that happens must be understood in the context of climate change, and its impact on poor countries."

The Pakistani portion of the Indus River, which flows from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea in the south, has again flooded its banks, after heavy rains hit the mountains last week.

United Nations agencies have warned that millions of children and pregnant women are at great risk and need urgent humanitarian assistance.

In the north of the country, where several towns remain under water, a week after the latest rains stopped, thousands are still without food or shelter.

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