Floods in Pakistan put education of 3.5 mn children in jeopardy: UN report

Following the visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Pakistan to extend support to flood victims, the United Nations released a report on Friday and said that the natural disaster had interrupted the education of nearly 3.5 million children in the country.

Th UN report further stated that floods have also added to the miseries of refugees as nearly 800,000 refugees live in districts officially notified as 'calamity hit' in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, turkey-based media Anadolu agency reported citing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In Sindh alone, According to the report, over 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land have been damaged in Sindh whereas over 1.5 million houses have been destroyed by flood waters, the report said.

The report also added that 1,460 health facilities were affected by the heavy rains and floods, reported Anadolu agency.

As per the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the devastating floods in Pakistan killed 1,391 people since June 14.

"Standing water continues to cover vast swaths of the country," the report said, citing satellite-detected water extents mapped by the United Nations Satellite Centre.

The mapping indicated preliminarily that at least 75,000 square kilometres (28,957 square miles) of land in Pakistan, the report added.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who was on a two-day visit to Pakistan said, "I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan," at a press conference in the port city of Karachi after witnessing the worst of the damage in southern Pakistan.

UN chief on Saturday visited several areas of Pakistan ravaged by floods, calling for increased global financial support at the end of a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the disaster.

Pakistan receives heavy -- often destructive -- rains during its annual monsoon season, which is crucial for agriculture and water supplies. But the heavy downpour this year has created havoc in the country, while rapidly melting glaciers in the north have for months heaped pressure on waterways.

Record monsoon and heavy floods in Pakistan have given rise to hunger and various illnesses which have affected 33 million people and the experts believe that the situation would aggravate in the coming days as the flood affectees are forced to live under the sky depriving the required resources.

Huge areas of the country are still underwater and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Pakistan is facing one of the worst flooding events in its history. The human and socio-economic toll is expected to increase as flood levels continue to rise, with immense pressure on the country's dams.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department said that it was the wettest August since records began in 1961. National rainfall was 243 per cent above average. In the province of Balochistan, it was +590 per cent and in Sindh +726 per cent, according to the monthly report.