Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
According to the research, floods were the deadliest disaster, accounting for 74.4 percent of disasters in the area and 88.4 percent of all fatalities worldwide. Image Source: IANS
According to a United Nations assessment released on Wednesday, the Asia-Pacific was the world's most disaster-prone region with floods, drought, typhoons, heat waves, and earthquakes in 2022.
According to the officials from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, the country might seek over $16 billion at a UN conference next week for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-hit regions. According to reports, the floods have caused a loss of about $30 billion. According to a United Nations assessment released on Wednesday, the Asia-Pacific was the world's most disaster-prone region with floods, drought, typhoons, heat waves, and earthquakes in 2022. According to the research, floods were the deadliest disaster, accounting for 74.4 percent of disasters in the area and 88.4 percent of all fatalities worldwide. When it comes to floods, Pakistan's flood from last year and its effects on the locals stand out. 33 million people were reportedly affected by the flood in Pakistan, which also claimed 1,739 lives. This very heavy monsoon rainfall in Pakistan had "fingerprints" of climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution report, which was published on September 15 of last year.
According to Foreign Office spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the conference aims to seek funding for the flood victims. Baloch further mentioned that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will co-chair the conference.
The flood led to the destruction of around 7000 km of roads and 500 bridges across the country. According to researchers, the disaster was most likely triggered by unprecedented heat waves. Temperatures in numerous places exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for extended periods in April and May. While Europe, China, and other parts of the world were suffering from severe droughts, Pakistan witnessed one of the deadliest floods in its recent history. According to reports, the flooding had hit approximately 110 of the country's 150 districts. The WHO had declared Pakistan's worst floods on record as a "high level" emergency, warning of a rapid spread of disease due to a lack of access to medical care. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan, around 1600-1700 people have lost their lives due to the floods and out of those dead, 550 are children.
A report by NDMA shows that the provinces of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are the worst affected provinces due to the floods. Around 4,72,000 people are staying in rehabilitation camps across different parts of Pakistan. The period from August 20, 2022 to September 20, 2022 caused the maximum destruction and reported maximum deaths due to flooding.
Source: National Disaster Management Authority Pakistan
The maximum numbers of deaths were reported in the period from 26th-31st August as this period had reported maximum rainfall which resulted in the flooding of Sutlej and Kabul rivers in Pakistan. It must be noted that the number of deaths decreased over the period as 86 deaths were recorded from September 6 to September 10.
The biggest problem faced by Pakistan, post floods was the rapid spread of diseases like dengue, malaria, cholera, typhoid and diarrhea. As per Reuters, around 324 people lost their lives due to the massive spread of diseases. According to the Sindh Provincial government, around 4,876 people tested positive for malaria. 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the southern region, according to the United Nations Pakistan, which also noted that typhoid, malaria, and diarrhea cases were all rapidly spreading. Thousands of people who had been displaced were living in the open. These people couldn’t be accommodated in the relief camps as the camps had already reached their maximum capacity. Poor living conditions and drinking contaminated water had made the situation worse and this has resulted into rapid spread of diseases.
The Pakistan Armed Forces (PAF) which includes Army, Navy and Air Force have been constantly providing aid to the distressed. As per the NDMA’s report, PAF had set up 7380 tents for the displaced people, had distributed 2,87,677 food packets, had provided 2495 tons of ration to the affected till September 3, 2022. PAF have attended 52,625 patients in its medical health camps.
The Pakistan government and the international humanitarian agencies and the NGOs have a long way ahead to overcome the humanitarian crisis.
