The floods that have left a third of the country’s provinces underwater in recent weeks have brought with them a new level of human misery – and a glimpse into the apocalyptic impact of the climate emergency in one of the countries least responsible for it. “I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale,” said the UN general secretary, António Guterres, on a visit to Pakistan this week. “I have simply no words to describe what I have seen today.” The record monsoon that began in mid-June has devastated much of the country, with some areas receiving more than eight times their usual rainfall. Torrents of water tore through villages, sweeping away thousands of houses, schools, roads and bridges and destroying 18,000 sq km of agricultural land. In Sindh, the southernmost province of Pakistan, which produces half the country’s food, 90% of crops have been ruined, and an inland lake 60 miles (100km) wide stretches to the horizon after the Indus River burst its banks. The flood is estimated to have killed at least 1,400 people. Many tens of millions more have lost their homes and livelihoods and the country has incurred huge financial costs. Damages so far have been put at $30bn (£26bn). In the flood’s immediate aftermath, aid agencies report that innumerable children have been left hungry and dependent on contaminated drinking water for survival, while pregnant women and elderly people are crowded into makeshift relief camps and unable to access life-saving medicines. Hospitals in the worst-hit areas are overwhelmed. Medics in one district say malaria cases are rising so fast that they have run out of capacity to even test for the disease, let alone treat it. As the horrors mount, a traumatised population now faces food shortages, famine and disease. Few doubt t at the crisis engulfing the country will get much worse in the coming weeks and months. “The scale of this and what is still to come for the people of Pakistan is quite chilling, to be honest,” said Farhana Yamin, a former UN lawyer who was born in Pakistan and helped to draft the 2015 Paris climate agreement. “This is not a small country, it is the fifth most populous country in the world, and it has been devastated … It will take decades to recover.”       https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/17/drought-floods-pakistan-devastation-climate-crisis