Disease warning as Pakistan flood death toll rises
Image credit: DW
As the death toll from the floods approaches 1,200, aid workers warn that a lack of safe drinking water is creating a surge in diseases in Pakistan.
According to medical relief organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, getting access to clean water was the largest obstacle for people looking for food and shelter.
On Saturday, the administration gathered to discuss the scope of the floods that had swamped a third of the nation.
Children are believed to make up at least one-third of the flood victims.
Ahsan Iqbal, a minister in the government, claimed that the nation lacked the resources necessary to handle the unprecedented catastrophe.
According to him, the floods were the worst climate-related tragedy in recent global history.
Over 33 million people have been impacted by the historic monsoon rains, which have destroyed about 1.4 million dwellings.
The senior disaster management officer for the nation claimed that Pakistan has to face some unpleasant climate change realities as of 2022.
According to Akhtar Nawaz, we experienced four heatwaves this year, which led to widespread forest fires across the nation and prevented us from experiencing a spring season.
According to the UN agency for children, Unicef, Pakistan’s lack of clean water puts more children at risk of contracting diseases and dying as a result.
According to Unicef’s Abdullah Fadil, “there is now a high risk of water-borne, lethal diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, cholera, and diarrhoea spreading rapidly.”As a result, many more child fatalities are possible.”
According to estimates, the floods in Pakistan have cost at least $10 billion (£8.5 billion) in damage, and many people are experiencing severe food shortages. The crops of the country were damaged by about half.
According to Reuters, one province, Balochistan, has gotten 436% more rain this monsoon than the 30-year normal.
Flooding is caused by a variety of variables, but climate change’s warming of the atmosphere increases the likelihood of extreme rainfall.
Since the start of the industrial period, the world has already warmed by around 1.2C, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments drastically reduce emissions.