The devastating flash floods in Pakistan have caused a loss of at least US$10 billion in various sectors of the country’s struggling economy, according to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.
Miftah said these are the first assessments that could escalate after polls are conducted on the ground, The News reported.
However, the minister did not currently have the details of the losses faced by each sector of the economy.
When asked if the country trusted donors when it first assessed the damage, he said no.
Senior official sources said Islamabad will first seek financial support from the international community and then assess the damage separately or jointly with donors to determine the exact figures, but first and foremost the government will focus on comprehensive relief efforts to rescue the victims.
In the 2005 earthquake and 2010 floods, Pakistan and donors assessed the losses inflicted on various economic sectors, and then the donors helped Islamabad during the post-relief and rehabilitation reconstruction period, 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 various parts of the country, in addition to damage to countless homes, hotels and roads in the major flood plains of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
At least 1,000 people have died and 1,527 others injured since the sustained torrential rains and subsequent flooding began in June, while 949,858 homes were partially or totally destroyed in the disaster, leaving millions of people homeless across the country, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in its latest update.
According to the NDMA, 348 children and 207 women are among the victims.
Sindh province remained the hardest-hit area during the prolonged monsoon, with various accidents killing 347 people and injuring 1,009 others.
About 3,451 km of roads, 149 bridges and 170 businesses were swept away by flash floods across the country.
An estimated 719,558 livestock died in the rains across the country.
–IANS
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(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by the staff at Business Standard; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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