Death toll from Pakistani flooding reaches over 1,000

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead as widespread flooding from a deadly monsoon threatens to submerge Pakistan, the country’s Climate Minister said on Sunday.

The seasonal monsoon which has been on since mid-June, according to the Minister, has become “a serious climate catastrophe.”

The Pakistani National Disaster Management Authority in a report, said the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal in mid-June had reached 1,061 people after new fatalities were reported across different provinces as at Saturday.

The report added that flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers battle to evacuate stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provide food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis.

The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four of the country’s provinces with nearly 300,000 homes destroyed, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting millions of people.

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A Pakistani senator, Sherry Rehman, who is also a 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.

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