Death toll from floods in Pakistan rises to 1,638

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) – The death toll from floods in Pakistan kept rising as 42 more people died during the weekend across the country, officials said on Monday.

With the latest casualties, the death toll from flood-related incidents rose to 1,638 while 12,865 were wounded since mid-June, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest data.

So far, 824,169 houses have been completely destroyed while over 1.22 million houses are partially damaged across the South Asian country.

The number of livestock that perished during the devastating floods also rose to 1.10 million, according to NDMA.

So far, Pakistan has received 126 flights of humanitarian aid from Türkiye, the UAE, China, Russia, the US, the UK, Uzbekistan, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Nepal, Turkmenistan, UNICEF, UNHCR, and the World Food Program.

Türkiye also sent another relief train carrying over 768 tons of humanitarian aid on Sunday.

The destructive floods affected millions of people in 84 districts across the country and thousands of them are living in tents.

Monsoon season in Pakistan, like in other countries in the region, usually results in heavy rains, but this year has been the wettest since 1961.

Currently, one-third of the country is under water as the massive rains and melting glaciers have caused the country’s main Indus River to overflow, inundating vast swaths of plains, and farms.

Destructive rains and floods have also washed away 12,716 kilometers (7,901 miles) of roads, 374 bridges and buildings across the South Asian nuclear country, which is already grappling with political and economic turmoil.

Over 33 million of the country's approximately 220 million population have been affected by the raging floods, causing a staggering loss of over $30 billion in damages to an already weakened infrastructure.

Almost 45% of the country's cropland has already been inundated by the floods, posing a serious threat to food security and further adding to the already skyrocketing inflation.