Deadly Floods Shrink a Third of Pakistan With 1,200 Casualties, Over 480,000 Missing

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres appealed to the world to aid the affected individuals as the UN launched a program to help the country. Guterres blamed "the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding."

Leaving property damage of at least $10 billion, 480,000 missing, and 1,200 casualties, the monsoon on steroids started to result in devastating floods in June, statistics from Reuters.

The country's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in an interview that he had a chance to visit Sindh and see first-hand how the flooding erased entire villages and towns.

He said that the scale of the tragedy is more than the population of Sri Lanka [and] or Australia.

Factors of Pakistan Flood

According to Jennifer Francis, a US-based climate scientist, the heavy downpours in Pakistan are being "juiced by climate change."

One of the main factors of this "monsoon on steroids" is when the temperature remained above 45 degrees Celsius throughout May. When a high temperature is present, it means the hotter air can carry more water, the more moisture content.

Some cities in Pakistan, like Jacobabad and Dadu, recorded humidity higher than 50 degrees Celsius. The accumulated moisture becomes torrents that cause flooding to the land; the cities of Sindh and Balochistan recorded a 400% increase in average rainfall that resulted in devastating floods.

Adding to the country's misery is the high risk of another flooding caused by melting glaciers. Pakistan has a big number of glaciers in the globe outside the polar region, and when extreme humidity continues, glacial lake outburst floods will flow from the Himalayas down to Pakistan, making them the "eighth most vulnerable country to climate change," according to climate scientists.

Pakistan Not to Blame For the Severe Flooding

Pakistan Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said in a press conference on Tuesday, "We are suffering from it, but it's not our fault at all," referring to the flooding as a "climate catastrophe." The country experienced a similar event in 2010, with nearly 2,000 recorded casualties.

Sharif added that he had "never seen such flood and devastation in his life," while the country's climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, described towns as "oceans and rivers." Rehman mentioned during the conference that Pakistan was responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions and stated that Asian nations were "paying the price" for western usage of fossil fuels.

Sherry urges us to be honest and speak about climate change and encourages every nation to take their role in the climate catastrophe. According to Sharif, about seventy-two districts and an estimated 3,500 km (2,175 miles) of roads have vanished due to the flood.

The Prime Minister also requested the international community to lend a hand in rebuilding the nation's hope and resiliency and "stand by" them during the country's "lowest moment."

Check out more news and information on Flooding in Science Times.