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Lahore: At least 50 killed, including 8 children, in floods and landslides monsoon heavy rain Pakistan Since last month, officials said Friday.
The summer monsoon brings 70-80% of the annual rainfall to South Asia between June and September each year.
It’s critical to the livelihoods and food security of millions of farmers in this region of some 2 billion people, but it also brings landslides and floods.
“Since the start of the monsoon on June 25, 50 deaths have been reported from rain-related incidents across Pakistan,” a state disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during the period.
Most of the deaths occurred in eastern Punjab province, mainly from electrocution and collapsed buildings, official figures showed.
According to Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesman for emergency services Rescue 1122, a man was found on Thursday amid a landslide in the Shanla district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bodies of 8 children were found.
He said rescuers were still searching for other children trapped in the rubble.
Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, said record rainfall on Wednesday turned roads into rivers and left nearly 35 percent without power or water this week.
The meteorological department is expecting more heavy rainfall across the country in the coming days and has warned of possible flooding in the basins of major rivers in Punjab.
The province’s disaster management agency said Friday that efforts were underway to relocate people living along the waterway.
Climate change is making seasonal rainfall heavier and less predictable, scientists say.
Unprecedented monsoon rains flooded a third of Pakistan last summer, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.
At least 27 people, including eight children, were killed in storms in the northwestern part of the country early last month.
Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, accounts for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officials said.
However, it is one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather from global warming.
The summer monsoon brings 70-80% of the annual rainfall to South Asia between June and September each year.
It’s critical to the livelihoods and food security of millions of farmers in this region of some 2 billion people, but it also brings landslides and floods.
“Since the start of the monsoon on June 25, 50 deaths have been reported from rain-related incidents across Pakistan,” a state disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during the period.
Most of the deaths occurred in eastern Punjab province, mainly from electrocution and collapsed buildings, official figures showed.
According to Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesman for emergency services Rescue 1122, a man was found on Thursday amid a landslide in the Shanla district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bodies of 8 children were found.
He said rescuers were still searching for other children trapped in the rubble.
Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, said record rainfall on Wednesday turned roads into rivers and left nearly 35 percent without power or water this week.
The meteorological department is expecting more heavy rainfall across the country in the coming days and has warned of possible flooding in the basins of major rivers in Punjab.
The province’s disaster management agency said Friday that efforts were underway to relocate people living along the waterway.
Climate change is making seasonal rainfall heavier and less predictable, scientists say.
Unprecedented monsoon rains flooded a third of Pakistan last summer, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.
At least 27 people, including eight children, were killed in storms in the northwestern part of the country early last month.
Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, accounts for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officials said.
However, it is one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather from global warming.
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