Pakistan is in need of major humanitarian aid after extremely heavy rainfall has caused intense floods throughout the country, killing at least 119 people in a day and affecting more than 30 million people.
Monsoon season usually brings rain to South Asia at the beginning of June, but heavy rains have hit Pakistan in epic proportions this year.
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, said that one third of the country is underwater and that Pakistan currently “resembles a small ocean”.
Video footage and images show homes completely underwater and bridges collapsed as rushing water passes through.
On Monday Aug. 29, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) said at least 1,061 people had died since the rains started mid-June.
Authorities have reported relief efforts are underway, but they have been slowed down after several highways and 130 bridges were damaged.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a northernwestern province, a bridge crossing the Kabul river was swept overnight cutting off people from main roads.
Around 180,000 people in the city of Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fled their homes for fear that the river would overflow.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has promised families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the most heavily affected areas, would receive 25,000 rupees ($112) as aid, according to BBC.
Pakistan has asked the International Monetary Fund for $1.2 billion dollars to aid relief efforts.
“Going forward, I would expect not only the International Monetary Fund, but the international community and international agencies to truly grasp the level of devastation,” the foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said, according to the Guardian.
India and Bangladesh have also had heavy monsoon seasons this year while other South Asian countries have also been reeling from an intense heatwave at the same time, with temperatures touching nearly 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in some places.
