Pakistan: the worst floods in its history affect a third of the country!

While drought ravaged France, and Europe in general this summer, in Pakistan, the opposite is happening. Although the country is prepared for each monsoon, this 2022 rainy season is proving to be devastating and deadly. A third of the country is submerged, more than 1,000 deaths are to be deplored, and more than 33 million inhabitants find themselves stripped of their homes, without a place to take refuge, i.e. one in seven Pakistanis.

The country, declared in a “state of emergency”, has requested a humanitarian aid to remedy some of the damage caused. The UN has thus launched an urgent appeal for 160 million dollars to come to the aid of the Pakistani. In total, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, repairs across the country will cost up to $10 billion. And for good reason, more than a million houses have been destroyed, more than 700,000 farm animals have been left for dead, and crops are ruined.

Hard to understand the scale of the flood disaster in Pakistan, the 5th most populated nation in the world.

Nearly 1400 dead, 1 million houses damaged or destroyed, and 50,000,000 people displaced.

1/3 of the country is underwater.pic.twitter.com/NFd15q3g7I

— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) August 30, 2022

Global warming accentuates extreme events

A tropical country, Pakistan is accustomed to witnessing each year, between June and September, heavy rains which supply the crops with water. But the country’s infrastructure this time suffered monsoon rains ” unprecedented for thirty years, laments the country’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif. These devastating floods follow a peak in heat in May 2022, where the temperature soared to 51°C in Jacobabad in the center of the country. It is this peak of heat that could have caused such floods: the intense drought makes the soil hard and impermeable. Thus, if water flows, a dry and compact earth will not absorb it and the water will continue to flow. Moreover, theair hot weather can retain more moisture, which then falls during torrential rains.

And the global warming increases the frequency of such climatic events : droughts and heat peaks will be more numerous, and therefore floods too. But some places on Earth are more directly affected than others. Global Warming Minister Sherry Rehman speaks of a “ crisis of unimaginable proportions”: “we are on the front line of the unfolding climate catastrophe”she said to The Guardian. According to her, the country could again go into drought following these floods, while for the moment the cities have become oceans and rivers.

Currently, the rain has stopped, but the water continues to rise, fed by rivers from the mountains. The Indus, the river that crosses the Pakistan and goes through many countries, including India which has taken back its name, threatens to get out of bed. If this happens, when hundreds of bridges and roads have already been destroyed, further thousands, if not millions, of people across the country could well suffer the consequences.