At least 50 people have died in Pakistan after
heavy rains triggered massive floods that have destroyed houses and
crops, officials said on Wednesday, as the South Asian nation
struggles to deal with these deadly effects of global warming.
Most of the deaths were caused by gushing waters flowing down into
valleys from mountains and winds bellowing at a very high speed, said
Reema Zuberi, spokeswoman for the national disaster agency.
Nearly 150 injured people were being treated at hospital, where
authorities had declared an emergency.
The north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in
the south-west were worse hit, with several towns were inundated,
Zuberi added.
Military and rescue agencies were evacuating stranded people in towns
and villages of Balochistan, local rescue worker Mohamed Younas said.
The wheat crop on hundreds of hectares of land was destroyed in the
central province of Punjab, known as the food basket of Pakistan.
Hundreds of villagers were being evacuated to safety in the Dera
Ghazi Khan region as large swathes of land had been submerged, local
police chief Haroon Rashid said.
The government has put the military and rescue agencies on high alert
as more rains were predicted, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry
said.
The floods usually hit South Asia in monsoon season, which begins
from July and lasts until the end of August. Experts attribute the
untimely rains to global warming.
Floods and weather-related incidents kill hundreds of people every
year in Pakistan, which faces imminent threat from climate change due
to its proximity with highly industrialised China and India.
People arrive to pray at the historical Badshahi Mosque during heavy rain in Lahore yesterday.
