Pakistan hit by deadly floods: 1,000 dead, millions displaced

Pakistan is facing one of the worst climate crises ever as half the country is flooded with water due to devastating monsoon rains. Over a thousand people have been killed and the country has declared an emergency and mobilised the military to deal with the situation.

On Sunday, Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority said the death toll from the monsoon rains had reached 1,033, with 119 killed in the last 24 hours.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has asked for financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to help the country.

Pakistan minister Sherry Rehman said in a video posted on Twitter that Pakistan is experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the hardest in the decade.”

Unprecedented floods: The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four of the country’s provinces. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting millions of people, reported AP.

• Flooding from the Swat river overnight has badly affected northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes to relief camp. Kamran Bangash, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said some 180,000 people have been evacuated from Charsadda and 150,000 from Nowshera district villages.

• Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a grant of Rs 10 billion for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Sindh braces for fresh deluge: Pakistan's already flooded southern Sindh province is bracing itself for a fresh deluge from swollen rivers in the north. The Indus river, fed by dozens of mountain tributaries to the north, but many have burst their banks following record rains and glacier melt, reported AFP.

Officials have warned that huge amount of water is expected to reach Sindh through these rivers in the next few days. "Right now, Indus is in high flood," Aziz Soomro, the supervisor of a barrage that regulates the river's flow near Sukkur told AFP.

Relief operations: The government has deployed soldiers to help civilian authorities in rescue and relief operations across the country. The Pakistani army also said in a statement it airlifted a 22 tourists trapped in a valley in the country’s north to safety, reported AP.

14.71 tons of ration tons of ration/ relief items, 7,845 ration packets and 1,600 tents were distributed in flood-affected areas during the past 24 hours, the ISPR said, reported The Dawn.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan has shared contact details of a Flood Relief Control Centre established by the Dir Scouts:

Mobile 1: 03091311310
Mobile 2: 03235780067
Landline: 0945-825526

Climate change to be blamed? The officials in the country are blaming climate change elsewhere in the world for the unprecedented rainfall and the devastation due to the floods, reported AFP. Pakistan is eighth on NGO Germanwatch's Global Climate Risk Index, a list of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.