Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported that at least 86 people have been killed and 151 others injured, including 16 women and 37 children, in the recent monsoon rains since June 25 in the country.
According to Pakistan-based ARY News, a report issued by the NDMA on Monday revealed that six people died and nine others were wounded in rain-related incidents across Pakistan in the past 24 hours.
Heavy rainfall in Pakistan: Destruction in numbers
The reports stated that the state of Punjab has the most number of people (52) who lost their lives due to heavy rainfall.
The report also added that over 97 houses have been damaged in the past few weeks as torrential rain continues to play havoc across the nation.
According to the NDMA report, 20 people died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and six lost their lives in Balochistan.
In April this year, the NDMA predicted that there is a 72 per cent chance of devastating floods in Pakistan in 2023. In a briefing to Public Accounts Committee (PAC), NDMA chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider said that the rapid rise in the temperature, glacier melting and early monsoon can result in floods, ARY News reported.
Haider said the NDMA and Pakistan’s Climate Change Ministry have been monitoring 17 satellites and 36 flood early warning systems have been placed. He noted that Pakistan will end up in a huge economic crisis if catastrophic floods like last year happened now, the report said.
Two roof collapses in Lahore’s Azhar Town and Shahdara Town neighbourhoods during the ongoing spell of rain across Pakistan’s Punjab and injured at least nine people, Pakistan-based Dawn reported on Saturday. No significant injuries have been reported, according to the rescue agency, Dawn reported.
All the injured people were immediately taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, the report said. Punjab’s relief commissioner Nabeel Javed visited the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) control centre where he was told of the impending danger of flooding of rivers.
(With ANI inputs)