Floods inflict $10 bn loss on Pakistan's economy, says FM Miftah Ismail

The devastating flash floods in Pakistan have inflicted a loss of at least $10 billion on different sectors of the countrys struggling economy, according to Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail.

Miftah said these were the initial assessments that might escalate after conducting surveys on the ground, The News reported.

The Minister however, did not have the details of the losses faced by each sector of the economy at the moment.

Asked whether the country had taken the donors into confidence on the initial assessment of damage, he replied in the negative.

Top official sources said Islamabad would first seek financial assistance from the international community and then it might assess the damages separately or jointly with the donors to work out the exact figures, but first of all the government would focus on all-out relief efforts in order to rescue the victims.

In the 2005 earthquake and 2010 floods, Pakistan and donors assessed the losses caused to different sectors of economy and then the donors helped Islamabad during the reconstruction phase after relief and rehabilitation, The News reported.

Now the same strategy would be adopted.

Initial assessments show that more than 1,000 people and millions of livestock have died in different parts of the country besides damage to an untold number of houses, hotels and roads in major flood-hit areas of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Since the continued torrential rain and subsequent floods started in June, at least 1,000 people have died and 1,527 people others injured, while 949,858 houses were partially or fully destroyed in the calamity, rendering millions of people homeless in the country, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in its latest update.

According to the NDMA, the victims include 348 children and 207 women.

Sindh province remained the worst-hit area during the ongoing monsoon, where 347 people were killed and 1,009 others were injured in various accidents.

About 3,451 km of roads, 149 bridges, and 170 shops were swept away by flash floods across the country.

An estimated 719,558 livestock perished in the rains across the country.

--IANS

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