Pakistan declares 8 more areas calamity hit as waters rise

Flood-affected people use cot to salvage belongings from their nearby flooded home (AP) — Flood-affected people use cot to salvage belongings from their nearby flooded home **(AP)**

1 min read . Updated: 03 Sep 2022, 04:58 PM IST Bloomberg

Pakistan on Saturday added another eight districts to its list of 80 calamity-hit areas as flood water rise

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Pakistan added another eight districts to its list of 80 calamity-hit areas as flash flooding in different regions of the country submerged villages and swamped agricultural lands.

Torrential rain has hit areas of northern Pakistan that had been unaffected, causing massive flooding, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said by phone Saturday.

“Things aren’t improving yet," he said. “We are still in rescue and relief phase."

The South Asian nation has reported its highest rainfall in three decades, with flooding that has inundated about a third of the nation. The extreme weather has killed more 1,200 people and cost the economy an estimated $10 billion.

The flooding has impacted 33 million people and damaged more than one million houses. Recovery in flood-wrecked areas could be a slow process because of problems draining the water, Iqbal said. “That’s a major issue because they are plains."

The United Nations’ World Health Organization warned of the spread of infectious disease imcluding cholera and typhoid in affected regions.

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