ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (APP): Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Wednesday said the country has embraced unprecedented spells of torrential downpour of biblical proportion that lashed out it’s vulnerable areas without any break.
In an interview with a foreign news channel, the Minister elucidated the country’s vulnerability due to climate change and the magnitude of torrential rains across the country.
She said the situation was changing regularly on ground whereas the country’s death toll has gone up to 903 due to massive flash flooding.
“As we speak now thousands of homeless without shelter and food, communication lines have been completely cut off. It is a serious humanitarian disaster,” the Minister said.
To a query, she said the country had never seen in the living history such relentless monsoon rains with six and seven spells, adding, “Pakistan is undergoing the eighth cycle of relentless monsoon rains that has no such precedent before.”
She mentioned that it barely gave the government a gap of half a day or one day as for instance in Karachi the city received 400mm rainfall within a few hours.
Responding to another query, she said no city was structured or geared up for that type of climate resilience that it could cope with such an amount of water in a very short time.
“It’s literally buckets pouring down and everyone is caught unprepared. We have a monsoon season every year but this is nothing like that… it is a torrential downpour of biblical proportion”.
The country has received a massive rainfall during the prevailing monsoon season that crippled its connectivity routes and infrastructure and left thousands destitute due to heavy inundation.
The governments at provincial and federal levels along with it’s Armed Forces are busy in resuce and relief efforts.
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