P.M. Shehbaz Sharif and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres are briefed on floods at the NFRCC. Photo courtesy PID
National Flood Response and Coordination Center (NFRCC) chief Maj. Gen. Zafar Iqbal on Friday warned that overall damages due to floods across Pakistan this year may exceed $30 billion due to the scale of the devastation wreaked by unprecedented rains.
Addressing a joint briefing for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres—who is in Pakistan to review flood relief efforts, call for global aid, and highlight the threat posed by climate change—he reiterated that a third of the country had been inundated by floods and over 33 million people had been affected.
Iqbal said the civilian government, military and non-governmental organizations, including various U.N. aid bodies, were coordinating relief efforts nationwide, adding authorities would commence an assessment survey of the ongoing relief operations in all provinces from Monday (Sept. 12).
The prime minister and U.N. chief were also briefed by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who warned Pakistan was estimating a two percent loss to its GDP growth—from five percent to three percent—for the ongoing fiscal due to a combination of crises, with the bulk of the blame falling on the floods, followed by a delay in the release of funds from the International Monetary Fund, and the global economic crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The minister recalled that the floods of 2010 had only impacted around 20 million people, adding that this year’s flash floods had affected more than 33 million people, with over 600,000 currently housed in relief camps, a majority of 572,913 in Sindh province. He informed the U.N. chief that a major challenge had been hill torrents, regretting that the existing infrastructure had been insufficient to cope with the disaster, resulting in massive losses to human life, infrastructure, livestock and crops.
Latest situation
According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 5 more deaths were reported over the previous 24 hours, leaving 1,396 deaths from various rain-related incidents in Pakistan since mid-June. It said 6 people were also reported injured, resulting in total injuries of 12,728—21 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir; 166 Balochistan; 5 Gilgit-Baltistan; 357 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 3,858 Punjab; and 8,321 Sindh.
The NDMA similarly updated the total losses to people’s homes, stating 1,240 homes had been reported partially damaged in the previous 24 hours, while 2,939 had been fully damaged and were now uninhabitable. In total, it said, 1.17 million homes had been partially damaged thus far, while 568,817 had been destroyed. Total livestock losses, it said, had risen to 750,223, with Sindh recording the deaths of 486 animals and KP 245 in the past 24 hours.
The latest situation report of the NDMA said 6,674km of roads had been damaged by the rains and floods, adding 269 bridges had likewise been damaged.
Worries over Manchar Lake
Sindh’s Manchar Lake, Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake, continues to pose a threat to nearby communities as its water level remains at dangerous levels despite multiple attempts to reduce it by the provincial government through controlled breaches. According to satellite images provided by NASA, the current water level in the lake risks the lives of around 100,000 living in several hundred villages scattered across the valley.
On Friday, the lake’s overflow reached the outskirts of Bhan Syedabad, with local residents scrambling to build a ring embankment around the city in the hope of averting disaster. Despite the work, experts warn, it is highly unlikely the city would be able to avoid flooding, as water from the Manchar Lake has yet to start flowing into the Indus River at the desired level.