Pakistan authorities on Saturday, ordered thousands of residents living near flood-swollen rivers in Pakistan’s north to evacuate as the death toll from devastating monsoon rains neared 1,000 with no end in sight.
According to officials, this year’s monsoon flooding has affected more than 33 million people, one in seven Pakistanis, destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes.
Adding that, this year’s floods are comparable to 2010, the worst on record, when over 2,000 people died and nearly a fifth of the country was under water.
While speaking to newsmen, Farmer Shah Faisal described how he saw his riverside home swallowed by a river as the powerful current eroded the bank.
Many rivers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a picturesque province of rugged mountains and valleys — have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.
