Pakistan floods - live: More than 1,100 dead as disaster could ‘cost $10bn’

Good morning! Welcome to The Independent’s live blog with all the latest updates from the unprecedented flash flooding in Pakistan on 30 August 2022. Stay tuned!

Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal has said the deadly flash floods could cost the country over $10bn and it may take five years to rebuild, as around one-third of Pakistan is feared to be underwater.

The climate change minister has called the situation a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions”.

“I think it is going to be huge. So far, (a) very early, preliminary estimate is that it is big, it is higher than $10bn,” Mr Iqbal told Reuters.

“So far we have lost 1,000 human lives. There is damage to almost nearly one million houses,” Mr Iqbal said.

“People have actually lost their complete livelihood.”

Mr Iqbal rated the recent floods worse than those that hit Pakistan in 2010, for which the UN had issued its largest ever disaster appeal.

The minister said it might take five years to rebuild and rehabilitate the nation, while in the near term it will be confronted with acute food shortages.

A third of Pakistan is underwater, the country’s climate minister has said as history-making floods saw nearly a half million people crowd into camps after losing their homes.

“It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out,” Sherry Rehman told AFP, calling the devastation wreaked by the flash floods a “crisis of unimaginable proportions”.

She also told the Associated Press that Pakistan was on the “front line” of the world’s climate crisis as unprecedented monsoon rains have killed more than 1,130 people since mid-June.

Here’s the latest update on the flood situation from Emily Atkinson:

As Pakistan stares at a food shortage in the midst of unprecedented floods, the country is looking at options for importing vegetables and may consider buying from arch-rival India.

The two neighbouring countries have not shared any meaningful trade for a long time.

“We can consider importing vegetables from India,” finance minister Miftah Ismail told local Geo News TV, adding other possible sources of food imports included Turkey and Iran.

Food prices have shot up further due to flooded crops and impassable roads. Pakistan was already suffering from inflation which has sparked several protests in recent months.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he was saddened by the devastation caused by the floods.

Pakistan has appealed for international help and some countries have already sent in supplies and rescue teams.

The Chinese government said on Monday it will provide additional humanitarian aid, including $300,000 in cash and 25,000 tents. China had already sent 4,000 tents, 50,000 blankets and 50,000 waterproof tarps to Pakistan.

China’s president Xi Jinping also called his Pakistani counterpart Arif Alvi to express his condolences on the severe flooding, according to Chinese state media.

The Canadian government on Monday announced $5 million in funding for humanitarian assistance to Pakistan to deal with the flooding.

Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal also said the world owed Pakistan, which was a victim of climate change caused by the “irresponsible development of the developed world.”

“Those areas which used to receive rainfall aren’t receiving rainfall and those areas which used to receive very mild rains are receiving very heavy rainfall,” he added.

This map shows the scale of Pakistan’s unprecedented floods as a third of the country is feared to be underwater before the season ends.

Approximately 33 million people are believed to be impacted by the deluge described as a “humanitarian disaster of epic proportions” with over 1,000 dead.

High-level discussion are reportedly underway in India as the country considers sending help to neighbour and arch-rival Pakistan amid the unprecedented flooding there.

According to a report by the Indian Express newspaper, the Narendra Modi government is holding talks “at the highest levels” on the possibility of extending humanitarian assistance to Pakistan.

While no decision has been taken yet, the newspaper quoted officials as saying that there are a number of options on the table.

India and Pakistan have shared little to no trade and diplomatic ties in recent years amid tensions over New Delhi’s move to withdraw statehood from Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.

Earlier Pakistan’s finance minister said they are considering buying vegetables from India amid flood-induced food shortages (see post below).

But another Indian media outlet played down the prospect of a resumption of trade, quoting an unnamed high-level official saying that trade between the two countries is not possible while Pakistan “keeps promoting cross-border terrorism”.

India has long accused Pakistan of harbouring militant groups which then conduct destabilising activities across the border.

Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which was the first to witness widespread devastation in this season’s flooding, is still struggling to resume railway services after the deluge washed away key tracks and bridges.

Railway services have now been suspended for another 10 days in the province, local media outlets reported.

However, railways authorities remain unsure of restoration even after 15 days.

The train route linking Balochistan to Iran has been closed for a month now.

The familiar ingredients of a warming world were in place: searing temperatures, hotter air holding more moisture, extreme weather getting wilder, melting glaciers, people living in harm’s way, and poverty. They combined in vulnerable Pakistan to create unrelenting rain and deadly flooding.

The flooding has all the hallmarks of a catastrophe juiced by climate change, but it is too early to formally assign blame to global warming, several scientists say. It occurred in a country that did little to cause the warming, but keeps getting hit, just like the relentless rain.

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Military helicopters and troops are working to provide help to victims of Pakistan’s massive flooding which has seen over 33 million people impacted.

But Pakistan’s climate minister says rescue and aid workers are encountering problems in finding a dry place to land helicopters, with almost one-third of the country feared to be underwater.

“Many districts are beginning to look like they’re part of the ocean,” Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change told German broadcaster DW News.

“Our helicopter sorties are not finding dry land to drop rations.”