Pakistan foreign minister needs aid after ‘overwhelming’ floods: On Sunday, Pakistan‘s foreign minister said that the country needed financial assistance to cope with the “crushing” floods. He also expressed optimism that financial organizations like the International Monetary Fund will consider the economic impact.
More than 30 million people have affected by disastrous floods in the north and south of the nation due to hefty monsoon rains. Which have also claimed more than 1,000 lives.
In an interview with Reuters, Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said, “I haven’t seen destruction of this scale, I find it very difficult to put into words… it is overwhelming.” He added that many crops that provided a large portion of the population’s livelihoods had destroyed.
He said, “Clearly, this will have an impact on the entire economic situation.”
The South Asian country was already in an economic crisis, experiencing soaring inflation. A sinking currency, and a current account deficit.
Pakistan joined a bailout program in 2019, and this week, the IMF board will determine whether to disburse $1.2 billion as part of the seventh and eighth tranches.
Bhutto-Zardari said that the board anticipate to accept the release given that a deal had already struck between Pakistani authorities and IMF personnel.
He also expressed optimism that the IMF will recognize the effect of the floods in the following months.
Going ahead, he predicted that not only the IMF but also the global society and international organizations would fully comprehend the extent of the destruction.
GEOLOGICAL CHANGE
Benazir Bhutto’s son, Bhutto-Zardari, said that while the economic damage was still calculated, some estimates placed it at $4 billion. However, he said he anticipated the overall number to be far higher given the effect on infrastructure and people’s livelihoods.
Given its effects on agriculture, Pakistan’s central bank has previously warned that its economic production was in danger from the record monsoon rains.
Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan would publish an appeal this week asking United Nations members to contribute to relief operations. In addition, the nation needs to consider how it would tackle the longer-term effects of climate change.
Bhutto-Zardari remarked that we would speak with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in addition to the IMF in the following phase when considering rehabilitation and rebuilding.
After relief operations, according to Bhutto-Zardari, the nation would need to consider how to build infrastructure. That is more resistant to both floods and droughts and how to deal with the significant changes the agricultural industry is experiencing.
Despite Pakistan’s minuscule carbon footprint, he added, “climatic calamities like this repeatedly ravage us. And we have to adapt within our meager means, anyway we can, to exist in this new environment.”
