Half a million forced into camps as floods ravage Pakistan

Bloomberg

Pakistan’s unprecedented flooding has forced nearly half a million people to leave their homes and move into relief camps as international aid starts to trickle in to help the South Asian nation already battling an economic crisis.
At least 498,000 people are currently in temporary shelters after swirling waters either engulfed or damaged over a million homes, 3,500 kilometers (2,174.8 miles) of roads and 162 bridges, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority. That prompted the United Nations and Islamabad to jointly appeal for $160 million in aid to help the victims with supplies such as tents and mosquito nets, Radio Pakistan reported.
The deluge, which the country’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman has called a “climate catastrophe,” has impacted 33 million people so far, more than the entire population of Malaysia. A food shortage is now anticipated, with large swathes of farmland and silos under water. The torrential rains have so far claimed 1,136 lives, according to the government.
People “are trying to find shelters wherever is possible,” Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said by phone. “The floods have washed away people’s grain stocks so I’m anticipating a food security challenge as most people in rural areas depends on these yearly stocks.”
The natural disaster comes as Pakistan is faced with one of Asia’s fastest inflation rates and is attempting to end a dollar shortage by resuming its $6.5 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund. The flood damage is estimated at more than $10 billion, according to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.