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On Monday, the UN refugee agency rushed to provide more much-needed aid to flood-stricken Pakistan as the country’s prime minister headed south, where rising waters in Lake Manchar posed a new threat.
Two UNHCR planes landed in the southern port city of Karachi, with two more expected later in the day. A third plane also landed in Karachi, aided by Turkmenistan. While floods have hit much of Pakistan in recent weeks, the southern province of Sindh, where Karachi is the capital, has been worst hit.
Unusually strong monsoon rains in Pakistan this year have killed more than 1,300 people and left millions without their homes, which many experts blame on climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, UN Secretary-General António Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” in the crisis. He plans to visit the flood-affected area on September 9.
Engineers cut embankments on the edge of Lake Manchar on Sunday to release rising floodwaters to save the city of Sehwan and several nearby villages from potential damage from flooding, which has damaged since mid-June 1.6 million homes.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif met Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto in the city of Sukkur on the swollen Indus, from where they toured the flood-affected area by helicopter. The chief minister of the province, Murad Ali Shah, briefed Sharif on the damage caused by the floods in Sindh.
In the Islamic country of 220 million people, the floods have affected more than 3.3 million people and caused $10 billion in damage, according to government estimates. The provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were worst hit, with most of the victims being women and children.
Afghan refugees living in Pakistan are also affected. Over the past four decades, Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans fleeing violence in the country, and there are currently some 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees.
It is estimated that more than 420,000 Afghan refugees live in Pakistan’s hardest-hit areas, adjacent to their host communities, and $160 million is being used to support Pakistan’s flood response. UNICEF is also calling for $37 million for children and families.
“The floods have deprived children and families of basic necessities,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF representative in Pakistan.
Aid planes from other countries are also expected to be dispatched later on Monday in response to Sharif’s call for the international community to help Pakistan.
With the help of two UNHCR planes, 38 planes have received aid from China, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and other countries.
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