United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday - while inspecting flooded areas of southern Pakistan - that he had never seen a "climate massacre" of this scale, blaming rich countries.
The floods resulting from torrential monsoon rains inundated a third of the country since last June, killing about 1,400 people and damaging crops, housing, commercial establishments, roads and bridges.
"I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen a climate massacre of this scale," Guterres said - in a press conference held in the port of Karachi, after inspecting the devastation in the areas swept by the waters in southern Pakistan. .
Guterres hopes that his visit will mobilize support for Pakistan, which is estimated to need at least $10 billion to repair or rebuild damaged or destroyed infrastructure, an amount that the country cannot raise alone at a time when it faces a huge debt burden.
He stressed that "rich countries have a moral responsibility to help developing countries such as Pakistan recover from such catastrophes, and adapt in order to gain resilience to the climate impacts that will unfortunately recur in the future," noting that the G20 countries today account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. .
Guterres visits a camp for people affected by the floods (Anatolia)
Although Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions, it is eighth on a list compiled by the non-governmental organization "German Watch" of countries most at risk of extreme weather events caused by climate change.
The floods affected more than 33 million people, rendering them homeless and unable to secure their basic needs, while destroying about two million homes and commercial establishments, inundating 7,000 kilometers of roads and swept away 500 bridges.
This year, Pakistan recorded an average of five times more seasonal rain than usual, according to the Meteorological Department. The rains caused rivers to overflow in the mountainous north, and many roads, bridges and buildings were swept away, and water accumulated in the southern plains and flooded hundreds of thousands of kilometers of land.
Hundreds of camps were set up over the rare dry areas remaining in the south and west of the country, and there are fears of the emergence of epidemics as people and their livestock congregate in these hastily established camps, especially since cases of malaria and scabies have been reported.
During his short tour, Guterres stopped at some of these makeshift camps, met with flood victims, and then inspected the historic city of Mohenjo-daro, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was damaged by torrential rain.