Floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains that have pummeled Pakistan since last month have killed at least 50 people, including eight children, officials said Friday.
Every year, the summer monsoon brings 70-80 percent of South Asia’s yearly rainfall between June and September.
It is critical for millions of farmers’ livelihoods and food security in an area of nearly two billion people, but it also causes landslides and floods.
“Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since the start of the monsoon on June 25,” a national disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during this period.
According to government data, the majority of the casualties occurred in the eastern Punjab province and were caused primarily by electrocution and building collapses.
According to Rescue 1122 spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi, the bodies of eight children were discovered from a landslide in the Shangla region of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday.
He stated that rescuers were still looking for other children trapped in the rubble.
Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, reported the city got record-breaking rains on Wednesday, turning roadways into rivers and knocking out about 35% of the population this week.
The Meteorological Department has projected further heavy rain across the country in the coming days, as well as potential floods in the catchment areas of Punjab’s major rivers.
The province’s disaster management office stated on Friday that it is working to move individuals who live along the waterways.
Climate change, according to scientists, is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.
Last summer, enormous monsoon rains flooded a third of Pakistan, destroying two million homes and killing over 1,700 people.
Storms in the country’s northwest killed at least 27 people, including eight children, early last month.
According to officials, Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth biggest population, is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
It is, nonetheless, one of the most vulnerable countries to the catastrophic weather produced by global warming.
