Pakistan’s devastating floodwaters could take six months to recede
Catastrophic floods in Pakistan have submerged large swaths of farmland, swallowed whole villages and turned some communities into islands ― and the water likely won’t be gone anytime soon.
Floodwaters will take an estimated three to six months to fully recede, Sindh province’s chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in a statement, according to CNN. As of late August, the southern province had already gotten almost six times as much rainfall as its 30-year annual average.
Those rains combined with glacial melt have caused the flooding that has devastated the country.
“We are living on an island now,” cotton farmer Muhammad Jaffar told The New York Times in a story published this week. Filthy water had completely drowned his fields, along with the well he used for drinking water.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said the floods have killed at least 1,314 people, including 458 children, according to The Guardian. Around 33 million others have been affected by the flooding. Many have had to flee their waterlogged homes to stay in shelters or tent encampments. [Continue reading…]