Islamabad, Sep 2
More than 2.4 million people have been affected and over a thousand villages submerged as record-breaking monsoon rains unleash devastating floods across Pakistan’s Punjab province, in what officials are calling one of the worst flood disasters in the region’s history, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), local media reported.
PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia said on Monday that heavy downpours and raging rivers have inundated over 3,100 villages and nearly 2,900 hamlets across the province.
The United Nations and growers warned that the relentless monsoon rains and floodwaters which devastated vast areas of farmland and destroyed ready-to-reap crops across Pakistan, trigerred concerns of a food crisis and inflation in the country.
The devastating floods that struck northeastern Punjab, the country's largest province and food basket, last week, killed at least 50 people, submerged hundreds of villages, schools, and health centers, swept away livestock, and destroyed crops, prompting large-scale evacuations, reported.