A third of Pakistan is under water due to deadly flooding caused by record monsoon rains, Sherry Rehman, Climate Change Minister, said Monday, August 29th calling it a ‘crisis of unimaginable proportions.’ Officials have said at least 33 million people – one in every seven persons in Pakistan- have been affected by the deadly floods, which have killed 1,136 people since the advent of the monsoon in June. Large parts of farmland in the western Balochistan provinces and southern Sindh are now just landscapes of water, while in the north, bridges and roads have been washed away by vicious mountain rivers.
“To see the devastation on the ground is mind-boggling,” Rehman said. “When we send in water pumps, they say, ‘Where do we pump the water?’ It’s all one big ocean; there’s no dry land to pump the water out.” Rehman added, “literally a third” of Pakistan was under water, describing it as analogous to a dystopian movie.
The country, Pakistan, is responsible for less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is ranked eighth on a list compiled by the NGO Germanwatch of countries that are the most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change. “It’s time for the big emitters to review their policies. We have crossed what the threshold is,” she said.
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