Climate inaction and policy failures

The floods that ravaged Pakistan are a consequence of unanswered global wakeup calls.

The agony and destruction wrought by the apocalyptic floods that ravaged Pakistan in August has unfortunately painted a ghastly picture of the devastation. The unprecedented scale of the flood, in comparison to previous floods of 2010 which covered about one-fifth of the country, has killed approximately 1,400 and displaced another 33 million people. A total of 670,328 houses and nearly 19,000 schools were damaged or destroyed. About 810,000 hectares of crops were affected. Thousands of kilometres of roads and other vital infrastructure were also damaged or destroyed, making even rescue and relief operations an overwhelming task. Pakistan will need tens of billions of dollars to rebuild these damaged infrastructures and lost livelihood bases.