Monsoon ‘superfloods’ kill at least 900 and sweep buildings away in Pakistan

Pakistan’s prime minister has called for international assistance after monsoon rains triggered catastrophic “super floods”, killing more than 900 people and affecting more than 30 million.

On Friday Shabaz Sharif met foreign diplomats as he called for help to respond to the floods, described by locals as the worst for more than three decades.

“The ongoing rain spell has caused devastation across the country,” Mr Sharif tweeted, after the government declared a national emergency.

The climate minister, Sherry Rehman, added in an interview with Reuters that the country is battling a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions”.

 “The percentages of super flood torrents are shocking,” she said, adding that Pakistan is now going through its eighth monsoon cycle “while normally the country only has three to four cycles of rain”.

Families told the Telegraph that they saw their relatives and neighbours drown as they were swept away by roaring waves, and have been left with almost nothing.

“Our homes have been washed away in floods,” said Sajid Hussain, from Sukkur in Sindh province, where a village of around 500 homes was washed away in the floods. “My six relatives were buried under mud and dozens are missing. It’s a catastrophe never seen before.”

A United Nations statement on Thursday said it had allocated $3m for UN aid agencies and its partners in Pakistan to respond to the floods. “This will be used for health, nutrition, food security, and water and sanitation services in flood-affected areas, focusing on the most vulnerable,” it said.

Pakistan is under an unprecedented monsoon spell and received 166.8mm of rain in August, as opposed to the average of 48mm – an increase of 241 per cent, turning rivers into lakes, submerging towns, farms and roads as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has said the country saw its wettest July since 1961 and suggests the possibility of re-emergence of another cycle in September.

Scenes of thunderous water waves gushing through residential areas, bringing down homes and businesses while people racing to safety were displaced across Pakistan. Aid agencies have erected tents and shelters for the flood-affected areas, but victims said there are food shortages.

“My home and crops have been completely damaged. Where will we live and what will we eat when there is no help from the government?” said a villager from Sindh.

In Balochistan, the largest and most impoverished province bordering Afghanistan, people were seen carrying bodies or pulling them out of their relatives from the rubble as authorities have warned of several flash floods to continue in the next 24 hours.

The deluge is the latest blow to Pakistan, which is in the grip of a severe financial crisis with rising inflation and dwindling foreign reserves, as it devastated vast farmlands and destroyed thousands of homes, leaving millions of people without food and shelter.