KARACHI, Pakistan: At least 18 Pakistanis, including 12 children, were killed in a bus fire as they journeyed home after fleeing catastrophic monsoon flooding, officials and rescue workers said Thursday (Oct 13).

Pakistan has been hit by unprecedented monsoon rains this year, putting a third of the nation underwater, displacing 8 million people, and causing US$28 billion worth of devastation.

As the waters slowly recede, thousands of the displaced – many living in ramshackle tent cities – are travelling back to their sodden homes to remake their lives.

Police said the passengers died when flames broke out overnight on a northbound bus outside the city of Karachi, where they settled after fleeing one of the worst flood-hit areas.

“They were going back to their village when they were overtaken by this accident,” Vinod Kumar, a district health official present at the scene, told AFP.

“Apparently, the fire broke out in the air conditioning system of the bus but investigations will reveal the real cause,” said police officer Hashim Brohi, who was also present.

Pakistan has a dismal record of fatal traffic accidents due to badly maintained vehicles, poor roads, reckless driving and poorly trained emergency services.

The historic floods across the nation – which have killed 1,700 – have been linked to climate change.

For many students, the floods have disrupted their education.

At a makeshift school set up under tarp sheets near Malook Khaskheli, schoolteachers said that about half of the batch of 63 students aged five to 12 are still attending classes, while the rest had moved away.

University student Wasseem Ali Khan, 21, was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in medical sciences at Makhdoom Mohammad Zaman Talib ul Moula Government Boys Degree College, New Saeedabad.

Two months ago, the college building was converted into temporary housing. Mr Ali Khan has not been able to attend classes since then. He is among 400 people from his village now sheltering on campus.

WOMEN’S HEALTH

Besides students’ education, the floods in Pakistan have also severely disrupted access to healthcare.

This is compounded by the spread of malaria and waterborne illnesses in the wake of the disaster, with the United Nations warning of a “second wave of death and destruction”.

On Wednesday, the Mercy Relief team visited a roving clinic serving about 80 women from three villages in Tando Allahyar district.

This is part of a medical camp for ante- and post-natal care organised by NRSP, which provides free consultations and medicine to pregnant women and new mothers.

The clinic will move on to serve different flood-affected villages over the coming days.

Gynaecologist Dr Maira Yaqoob, 27, said that most patients she sees are showing signs of pain, fever and weakness. Some also had symptoms of waterborne illnesses such as diarrhoea and skin infection.

BANGKOK: Heavy seasonal rains again pounded much of Thailand on Sunday (Oct 9), causing continued widespread flooding, particularly in the north-east and central regions.

In the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, almost 20,000 people have been moved into 85 temporary shelters as floodwaters overwhelmed more than 1,000 villages, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation reported.

The provincial Chamber of Commerce estimated 5 billion baht (US$133 million) of economic damage from the flooding, as residents complained that they received little assistance for their plight, which saw floodwaters penetrate central urban areas.

More than 200,000 households in total in 54 provinces have been hit by floods over 10 days until Saturday, according to the disaster agency.

Flooding is a seasonal problem in Thailand but this year it has been exacerbated by the remnants of Tropical Storm Noru, which swept through in the last week of September, and the south-west monsoon in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.

Authorities recently warned that the capital, Bangkok, and other provinces along the Chao Phraya River could face severe threats as the volume of water flowing from upstream is more than can be contained in the river and dams.

As the major dams reach their capacities, the authorities are forced to release water, which in turn raises levels in rivers downstream.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is out of money to spend on recovery from recent devastating floods, its climate change minister said on Tuesday (Oct 4), urging prompt international help at the UN launch of an aid appeal as the funds the country needs were ramped up five-fold.

The United Nations revised up its humanitarian aid appeal for Pakistan five-fold to US$816 million from US$160 million, as a surge of water-borne diseases and fear of growing hunger pose new dangers after weeks of unprecedented flooding linked to climate warming.

“We have no space to give our economy any stimulus,” the climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, told the conference in Geneva aimed at seeking aid for Pakistan.

She urged the developed world to accelerate funding for the ongoing domestic climate-linked disaster, which she said had no parallel in known history.

Over seven million people have been displaced from their homes, she said.

Pakistan’s economic affairs minister Ayaz Sadiq told the gathering that it would take “years and years” for the country to rebuild and help rehabilitate millions of people whose homes were destroyed by the flooding.

The floods, caused by abnormal monsoon rains and glacial melt, have submerged huge swathes of the South Asian country and killed nearly 1,700 people, most of them women and children.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are living in the open are being exposed to diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, dengue fever, severe skin and eyes infections, all of which are fast spreading amid stagnant floodwaters that officials say will take several months to recede.

GENEVA: The United Nations has revised up its humanitarian appeal for Pakistan five-fold to US$816 million from US$160 million as it seeks to control a surge in water-borne diseases following the country’s worst floods in decades, an official said on Monday (Oct 3).

Nearly 1,700 people have been killed in floods caused by heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers in a crisis that the government and the UN have blamed on climate change.

“We are now entering a second wave of death and destruction” Julien Harneis, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan said at a Geneva briefing.

“There will be an increase in child morbidity and it will be pretty terrible unless we act rapidly to support the government in increasing the provision of health, nutrition and water and sanitation services across the affected areas,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who fled their homes are living in government camps set up to accommodate them, or simply out in the open.

Stagnant floodwaters, spread over hundreds of square kilometres (miles), may take two to six months to recede in some places, and have already led to widespread cases of skin and eye infections, diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid and dengue fever.

The crisis hits Pakistan at a particularly bad time. With its economy in crisis, propped up by loans from the International Monetary Fund, it does not have the resources to cope with the longer-term effects of the flooding.

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy president Rafizi Ramli has launched an online petition against calling for Malaysia’s 15th general election during the year-end flood season. 

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Sep 27), he said all parties should focus on facing the floods and all other matters, which can be postponed, should be set aside. 

“(Holding the) GE15 during the floods means more than RM1 billion (US$216 million) will be used to administer an election while the people’s fund should be better off being channelled to disaster management efforts. 

“It also means hundreds of thousands of civil servants will have to be on duty to handle the election while they should be with volunteers assisting flood victims,” he said. 

The petition on change.org has received more than 7,500 signatures as of 2pm on Wednesday. 

United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), or president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in particular, has been pushing for snap polls with the intention of wresting back power. 

UMNO currently forms the ruling government alongside Perikatan Nasional’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. However, there have been signs that they will be entering the election as opponents. 

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, an UMNO vice president, is facing mounting pressure to dissolve parliament, but he has yet to commit to a timeline. The present government has until September next year to hold GE15.  

Ahmad Zahid’s call for GE15 does not sit well with the opposition, which insists that the monsoon season at the end of the year is not a suitable time for polls. Malaysia’s Meteorological Department had warned of floods during the north-east monsoon season, which typically starts in November and ends in March.  

The Bagan Datuk MP, however, said the opposition wants to delay the general election because it is afraid of losing. 

In Pakistan, nearby farms have long been supplied with water from the Indus River in order to expand irrigation systems and support agricultural growth. Over the years, embankments along the rivers have been built with government assistance to shield the farming land from sporadic floods.

Settlements constructed along the riverbanks and in flood-prone areas contributed by choking the natural drainage through which the excess waters move towards the sea.

The majority of farms receiving irrigation water from the Indus are owned by wealthier farmers. Wealthy farmers have prospered from these irrigation infrastructures, leaving the poor to bear the burden of flooding and devastation. That has raised questions about equity and justice in Pakistan.

GLOBAL CLIMATE INEQUALITY

The floods have also drawn attention to global climate inequality. Though Pakistan contributes to less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse and carbon emissions, it was ranked among the top 10 most vulnerable nations to the effects of climate change by the Global Climate Risk Index.

To address these multifaceted challenges and combat the climate crisis, Pakistan will need to implement a diverse set of short- and long-term strategies that are carefully designed, discussed and inclusively implemented. Science and policy must connect climate change risks and mitigation measures in an actionable way.

Better climate preparation is required for South Asia as a whole, not only in Pakistan. The entire region has experienced extreme weather events, such as flooding, droughts and heatwaves.

The tragedy in Pakistan is a wake-up call to the world’s most densely populated region. If immediate measures are not taken to improve climate crisis preparedness, mitigation and adaptation, disasters will worsen.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges: “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”

Manita Raut is PhD student and John Allwright fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is Professor at the Resource, Environment and Development Program at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. This commentary first appeared on East Asia Forum.

Mr Chow said the state government had previously stated that it might hold its polls if GE15 was called towards the end of 2022.

However, the state had not considered the monsoon at that time, he said, according to New Straits Times. 

“At that time, we said that we might follow if the dissolution was nearer to the full term. 

“But, of course now, with Barisan Nasional so determined to have early elections, even during the monsoon, I am sure many people have criticised this decision,” he told reporters after launching a street food competition. 

The chief minister said the monsoon season is not suitable for election campaigns and polling. The Northeast Monsoon usually starts in November and ends in March, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department. 

“How would Malaysian voters exercise their right to vote when they have to face a life and death situation when their homes are flooded? Even polling centres may not be spared. So, how do you go and vote in a flooded polling station?” he was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.

The electoral process will be jeopardised under such circumstances, he added. “Can we call ourselves a democratic country when we can’t even go to vote on polling day because some people are so determined to hold elections during the monsoon?”

Mr Chow said Penang will follow suit if parliament is dissolved closer to the end of term in July next year, the Malaysian Insight reported.

“If the dissolution is nearer to full term, obviously, we will follow. But now, Barisan Nasional is so determined to have an early general election even during the monsoon season,” he was quoted as saying.

On Monday, United Malays National Organisation president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said there should be no issue if GE15 is held during the monsoon season as it had been done before.

He accused the opposition of highlighting this in a bid to influence voters into thinking that holding the polls at this time is tantamount to exposing them to flood risks. 
 

LAHORE, Pakistan: Vegetable and fruit prices have soared in markets across Pakistan as devastating rains ruin crops and disrupt supplies, an early sign of how the worst floods in decades are creating food shortages at a time of financial crisis.

Pakistan’s 220 million people are already facing rampant inflation, with consumer prices up 24.9 per cent year-on-year in July. The economy is in turmoil, with fast-depleting foreign reserves and a record depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar.

That leaves the country particularly vulnerable as it counts the cost of extreme monsoon rains through August that have killed more than 1,100 people.

Damage to homes and infrastructure will run into billions of dollars, while losses in the key farming sector have yet to be fully assessed.

In the eastern city of Lahore, close to the border with India and far from the worst floods in Sindh province, prices of some vegetables have tripled.

“Last week, I sold onions for 90 rupees a kg and today the government price is 300 per kg,” said vegetable seller Ahmad Ali. The Pakistani government sets prices for some fresh produce, although traders often ignore the guidelines.

Tomatoes and onions are among the most common ingredients in Pakistani cooking, and tens of thousands of tonnes of each are consumed each month.

“The supply of vegetables and fruit to Lahore is getting lower day by day because of the flood, rains and destruction to roads,” said Malik Salim Awan, a supplier at Lahore’s fruit and vegetable market.

“Before the current scenario, we were receiving over 100 trucks (of fresh produce) daily. Now, we receive 10 to 15 trucks only,” Awan said.

Officials say that more than two million acres of agricultural land have been flooded, destroying most standing crops and preventing farmers from sowing new ones.

WAREHOUSES EMPTYING

Hundreds of kilometres from Lahore, people must clear up flooded homes at the same time as worry about where the next meal will come from.

“Tomatoes were 60 rupees a kg, and now they are more than 200 … even the price of flour is double now,” said Sain Bukash Husain, 20, whose home in the village of Garhi Yasin in the southern province of Sindh has been badly damaged.

“What can we do?”

Sindh, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, with 697 mm of rain thus far in the monsoon period, or 466 per cent above the 30-year monsoon average. Pakistan as a whole has seen nearly 190 per cent more rain than the 30-year average.

In Dera Ismail Khan, in central Pakistan along the Indus River, warehouses storing vegetables are already emptying out.

The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scrambling to secure supplies.

“The rice crop has been washed away,” Sharif told reporters after visiting northern Pakistan. “Fruit and vegetables are gone.” He said flood waters had swept away 700,000 livestock.

Pakistan’s agrarian sector powers the economy and feeds the people, accounting for more than a fifth of the country’s output, employing up to 40 per cent of the workforce and producing goods worth around US$80 billion annually.

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar said on Wednesday that the government was close to an agreement to import vegetables and other edible goods from Iran and Afghanistan, and an urgent request had gone to the cabinet to approve it.

“Prices are up already. If you go to buy onions you wouldn’t get it. If you go to buy tomatoes you will get it at a much higher price,” Qamar told a news conference, citing the fallout of the floods.