Unusually heavy monsoon rains have caused devastating floods in both the north and south of the country, affecting more than 30 million people.
An overview by Maxar shows a Pakistani village and fields before (left) and after flooding in Rajanpur, Pakistan.
(Maxar Technologies/Handout / Reuters)
Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June as the country’s climate minister called the deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe.”
Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis.
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority reported the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal this year — in mid- June — reached 1,061 people after new fatalities were reported across different provinces on Sunday.
Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and the country's top climate official, said in a video posted on Twitter that Pakistan is experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the hardest in the decade.”
“We are at the moment at the ground zero of the front line of extreme weather events, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events and now the monster monsoon of the decade is wreaking non-stop havoc throughout the country," she said.
The on-camera statement was retweeted by the country’s ambassador to the European Union.
Watch how these incredible Pakistanis are rescuing people during this horrific flood.
"I haven't seen destruction of this scale, I find it very difficult to put into words ... it is overwhelming," said Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in an interview with Reuters, adding many crops that provided much of the population's livelihoods had been wiped out.
"Going forward, I would expect not only the IMF, but the international community and international agencies to truly grasp the level of devastation," he said.
Flooding from the Swat River overnight affected northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where tens of thousands of people — especially in the Charsadda and Nowshehra districts — have been evacuated from their homes to relief camps set up in government buildings.
Many have also taken shelter on roadsides, said Kamran Bangash, a spokesperson for the provincial government.
Bangash said some 180,000 people have been evacuated from Charsadda and 150,000 from Nowshehra district villages.
Khaista Rehman, 55, no relation to the climate minister, took shelter with his wife and three children on the side of the Islamabad-Peshawar highway after his home in Charsadda was submerged overnight.
“Thank God we are safe now on this road quite high from the flooded area," he said. "Our crops are gone and our home is destroyed but I am grateful to Allah that we are alive and I will restart life with my sons.”
The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four of the country's provinces.
Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting millions of people.
Rehman told TRT World that by the time the rains recede, "we could well have one-fourth or one-third of Pakistan under water.”
“This is something that is a global crisis and of course, we will need better planning and sustainable development on the ground. ... We’ll need to have climate resilient crops as well as structures,” she said.
Pakistan is facing one of the world’s worst climate crises,& not all of it is of our own making. It’s coming to us from all sides,scorching temperatures,forest fires,water insecurity, glacial melt floods,simultaneous draughts,impacting public health & food insecurity. @trtworldpic.twitter.com/rk6XKaTNwK
— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) May 21, 2022
In May, Rehman told BBC Newshour that both the country’s north and south were witnessing extreme weather events because of rising temperatures. “So in north, actually, just now we are ... experiencing what is known as glacial lake outburst floods which we have many of because Pakistan is home to the highest number of glaciers outside the polar region."
The government has deployed soldiers to help civilian authorities in rescue and relief operations across the country. The Pakistani army also said in a statement it airlifted 22 tourists trapped in a valley in the country's north to safety.
Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif visited flooding victims in city of Jafferabad in Balochistan.
He vowed the government would provide housing to all those who lost their homes.
Source: AP
Senior TMC MP Saugata Roy on Sunday said if the BJP and CPI(M) cross the limits of decency while attacking his party for the misdeeds of a few, their leaders should not complain if beaten up with shoes and driven out of their localities.
Roy said he was aghast over the spate of “defamatory attacks” against every TMC leader after the arrests of senior party functionaries Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal by central agencies in different cases.
He later said that the shoe comment is a rhetoric and not to be taken literally. Addressing a street corner meeting here, he said, “If there is any BJP or CPI(M) activist here, listen carefully. If any of you cross the limits of decency by branding every one of the TMC as thieves while attacking the party, don’t blame us if our party men beat you up with shoes.” “Don’t complain if you are driven out of your locality by our members,” he added.
Reacting to Roy’s remarks, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the comments of the retired professor show how verbal abuses have become the trend in the TMC. Shedding his mask of civility, Saugata Roy adopted the language of the lumpen. Very soon the people of Bengal will turn against the corrupt TMC in public and leaders like Roy will face the music,” Majumdar said. CPI(M) Central Committee member Sujan Chakraborty claimed that Roy is trying to raise his ratings in the TMC hierarchy by making such comments.
“If he wants to threaten us, let me tell him that our cadre is ready to face the TMC’s rowdyism on road,” he said. Trinamool Congress state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh sought to defend his party colleague, saying that attacks by the entire opposition against every TMC leader after the arrest of Chatterjee and Mondal probably made a veteran MP like Roy utter such comments.
Later, Roy told PTI that the shoe comment was “a rhetoric used by the Naxalites in the early 1070s. It should not be taken literally.” Roy’s comment came a few days after he remarked that shoes will be made by peeling off the skin of those who believe they can get away by maligning the TMC under the garb of protest.
However, he later regretted making such a remark.
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The young swimmer from Türkiye's Aegean city of Bodrum crossed the Channel in 16 hours and 28 minutes.
Türkiye’s Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu congratulated Turkoglu saying "You are wonderful Aysu, we are proud of you!"
(AA)
21-year-old Turkish swimmer Aysu Turkoglu has made history as the youngest Turkish athlete to swim across the English Channel that separates the United Kingdom and France.
Turkoglu, a student at the Ege University Faculty of Sports Sciences, dived into the Channel from Dover, UK, at 1202GMT on Friday.
Her trainer Bengisu Avci and father Mustafa Turkoglu followed the swimmer by boat.
Battling multi-directional waves and currents, the young swimmer completed her crossing at the Cap Gris-Nez coast of France after 16 hours and 28 minutes.
Tarih yazan genç Türk Aysu Türkoğlu Fransa sahiline ayak basınca :
