ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom (UK) on Saturday announced that it was providing urgent support to Pakistan after extreme monsoon rainfall in the south of the country killed at least 900 people and flooding affected millions of people, with 700, 000 homes destroyed.

In response to the disaster, the UK would provide up to £1.5 million support to relief efforts. The United Nations (UN) was carrying out a needs assessment over the weekend, and a UN appeal was expected to be launched on Tuesday, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South and Central Asia, North Africa, UN and the Commonwealth and the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, said in a statement.

“The floods in Pakistan have devastated local communities and the UK is providing up to £1.5 million to help the immediate aftermath. We are witnessing the catastrophe that climate change can cause and how it impacts the most vulnerable. My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families and I would like to pay tribute to everyone involved in the relief efforts. We are also working directly with the Pakistan authorities to establish what further assistance and support they require. The UK stands with the people of Pakistan during this time of need,” the statement said.

The United Kingdom also provides assistance to Pakistan through international organisations working directly with the victims of the disaster, including the World Bank and the UN.

The £1.5 million of humanitarian funding was an allocation from existing support to Pakistan and would go to the relief efforts in the areas worst-hit by the flooding.

London pledged over £55 million to partner with Islamabad to fight climate change, manage water more sustainably and unlock climate investment in November 2021, during the COP26 Conference in Glasgow.

The statement said the Global Climate Risk Index report noted that Pakistan had reported 502 deaths and a loss of $3.772 billion as a result of 173 extreme weather events between 2000 and 2019.

Pakistan was among the most disaster-prone countries in South Asia and had suffered an estimated $18 billion in damages due to disasters during the past decade. This had included recurrent floods, earthquakes, droughts and urban shocks (such as heatwaves and dengue). Overall, in Pakistan, 25pc of the households or 49 million people were estimated to be moderately or severely food insecure, whereas 10pc of the households or 21 million people were classified as severely food insecure.

The Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index suggested that 36.43 million people were chronically vulnerable.

The statement also said Pakistan was the eighth most at risk country globally from the impacts of climate change, an improvement from fifth most at risk country in 2020. This year, Pakistan has and is experiencing consecutive extreme climactic events. The country moved directly from winter into summer temperatures with a number of extreme heat waves, causing rapid glacial flash floods and forest fires.

During the 2020 floods in Pakistan, the UK announced a £800,000 aid package through the National Disaster Consortium (NDC) and provided immediate relief in rural Sindh to many who had lost their homes. It also provided life-saving clean water, sanitation and shelter to over 55,000 vulnerable people in Pakistan to help them recover from the devastating floods.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2022