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Pakistan has been witnessing torrential monsoon rains in the past few weeks that managed to break a century-long record and levied more than five times the 30-year average for rainfall in some provinces of the Asian nation. On Friday, authorities warned people in the district of Dadu in the southern Sindh province to move to safer places ahead of floodwater from the swollen Indus river that's expected to hit the region this week.
According to reports, the unprecedented floods have washed away or damaged over 1.1 million houses and destroyed vital infrastructure children rely on to access essential services, such as schools and hospitals.
At least 18,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed across the country due to the floods.
Officials have informed that the death toll in flood-ravaged Pakistan surged past 1,200, with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have killed at least 1,208 people, including 416 children, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has said.
Since 1959, Pakistan has emitted about 0.4% of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, compared to 21.5% by the United States and 16.4% by China, according to scientists and experts. Pakistani officials and experts say there’s been a 400% increase in average rainfall in Pakistan's areas like Baluchistan and Sindh, which led to the extreme flooding.
In May, some parts of Sindh were the hottest place in Pakistan. Now people are facing severe floods.
According to UN agencies, the situation will only continue to deteriorate as winter is just eight weeks away in some parts of the country.
There is now a high risk of water-borne, deadly diseases spreading rapidly -- diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria. Without adequate sanitation, communities are increasingly having to resort to open defecation, putting them at high risk of contracting diseases.
Following heavy rains and floods in Pakistan, close to five billion people are at risk of various diseases and medical experts and organizations have warned that medicines worth over a billion rupee are immediately needed in the affected areas.
"International trends and studies lead to an estimate that some five million people are at risk of different diseases. If we keep the minimum medicine price for each patient at PKR 220, medicines worth at least a billion rupees would be required," said the managing director of Al Khidmat Foundation's (AKF) health division, Sufyan Khan, reported Dawn.
Pakistan's government has started importing vegetables to avoid a shortage of food. Pakistan is also in contact with Russia to import wheat, as floods destroyed grains stored by many villagers in homes to meet their whole year's needs.
Since mid-June, floods have also killed 733,488 goats, cows, and buffaloes apart from damaging crops.
"Relief and rescue operations are still extremely hard to carry out - around 160 bridges and 5,000 kilometres (3,200 miles) of roads have been destroyed or damaged, 3.5 million acres of crops affected and about 800,000 livestock lost. Yet lifesaving rescue and relief efforts are indispensable, and UNICEF is distributing humanitarian supplies in all affected provinces," said UN official