In Pakistan, the volume of rain since the beginning of April has been twice as high as usual. In four days, this bad weather caused the death of at least sixty-five people, local authorities announced on Wednesday April 17.
Between Friday and Monday, intense rainfall caused flash floods and the collapse of homes, while twenty-eight people were killed by lightning. The heaviest toll (thirty-two deaths, including fifteen children) concerns the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the northwest of the country, where 1,300 homes were destroyed. “All the casualties were the result of collapsing walls and roofs,” Anwar Khan, spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.
Residents whose homes were flooded had to move to higher ground, finding shelter under makeshift shelters.
“Climate change is a major factor.”
“In April, we observed unusual rainfall patterns,” Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesperson for the Pakistan Meteorological Department, told AFP. From April 1 to 17, we experienced precipitation levels that exceeded the historical average by 99%. »
“Climate change is a major factor” in this development, he added, specifying that the comparison related to data dating from the last thirty years.
The rain stopped in most of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday, but more severe weather is expected in the coming days.
Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, is among the most threatened by climate change. In the summer of 2022, unprecedented floods submerged a third of the country, affecting more than thirty-three million people and causing more than seventeen hundred deaths.
