LONDON: The Disasters Emergency Committee — comprising 15 of the UK’s leading charities, including Save the Children, the British Red Cross and Oxfam — has launched an urgent appeal to support the millions of people affected by devastating floods in Pakistan.
Some 1,136 have been killed by flooding that began in June. Described by the UN as a “monsoon on steroids,” the DEC has reported cases of Pakistanis being forced to live without clean water or shelter.
The extreme monsoon rainfall, which has more than doubled the monthly average for the season, has left more than one-third of Pakistan totally submerged.
It is the heaviest recorded level of rainfall in a decade, according to Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman.
The Pakistani government has detailed the destruction caused by the floods, pointing to submerged infrastructure and farmland, which has killed more than 727,000 cattle and destroyed 2 million acres of crops, putting the food harvest at major risk.
About 33 million people have been affected by the flooding, which has destroyed 1 million homes, according to the UN.
As the situation threatens to worsen, the DEC has urged the British public to give whatever they can to support disaster relief.
Its CEO Saleh Saeed said: “The scale of these floods has caused a shocking level of destruction — crops have been swept away and livestock killed across huge swathes of the country, which means hunger will follow.”
The DEC campaign comes after the UN committed to raising $160 million to support Pakistan.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the country needed funding to support those suffering in the “climate crisis hotspot.”
He added: “Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
