ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an agricultural and climate emergency throughout Pakistan due to extensive damage caused by heavy floods.
Speaking in the cabinet meeting, the premier stated the floods have caused havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab, with water now breaching into the Sindh valleys. “Thousand acres of land in Punjab are inundated, and approximately a thousand Pakistanis have lost their lives,” he added, stating thousands of others had been injured.
Prime Minister Sharif announced that the total of agricultural losses, which include wheat and cotton crop damage, would be reported and put before the cabinet next week. He stressed that urgent action is required and also declared that a relief and recovery committee would be set up to start work.
These are huge challenges being created by climate change, and Pakistan cannot deal with them on its own. There is a need for an exhaustive roadmap to effectively deal with these challenges,” he said, tasking the Ministry of Climate Change with formulating a programme for collective action.
The Prime Minister cautioned that the threat is yet to abate, as waters from the floods continue flowing towards Sindh, threatening crops, infrastructure, and people.
With millions of acres of crops lost and extensive human and economic losses, the government emergency declaration is intended to organize relief and create long-term strategies to mitigate the effects of climate-related disasters.
Millions were impacted by intense monsoon floods that devastated homes and crops. Pakistan’s Punjab province has seen more than two million people displaced, with entire towns and thousands of farms underwater.
Massive agricultural land has been destroyed, jeopardizing rice yields. Climate change is said to have enhanced the monsoon rains by experts, and the United Nations adds that more than 900 people have died in Pakistan since June. Relief efforts are underway in Punjab, but the magnitude of the disaster is overwhelming.
