West’s ‘irresponsible development’ blamed for climate change behind Pakistan floods

Richer countries have a “responsibility” to help Pakistan deal with flooding and prevent future disasters because they’ve caused climate change, its planning minister has said.More than 1,000 people are reported to have died so far and over a million homes have been damaged.
Historic monsoon rains have also swept away roads, bridges and crops – and planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan was feeling the effects of climate change caused by richer nations and their “irresponsible development”.”Our carbon footprint is lowest in the world,” said Mr Iqbal.”The international community has a responsibility to help us, upgrade our infrastructure, to make our infrastructure more climate resilient, so that we don’t have such losses every three, four, five years.”
“Those areas which used to receive rainfall aren’t receiving rainfall and those areas which used to receive very mild rains are receiving very heavy rainfall,” he added.The cost of recovering from the disaster is estimated at more than $10bn (£8.54bn) and might take about five years, Mr Iqbal said in an interview with Reuters news agency.

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But he said formal requests for financial help will have to wait until the full scale of the damage is clear.

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Ahsan Iqbal says richer countries have a responsibility to Pakistan

Read moreWhy Pakistan is at ‘ground zero’ of the climate crisis after suffering deadly flooding

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Some countries have already sent help: tens of thousands of blankets, tents and waterproof tarps have been dispatched by China, while Canada has donated $5m (£4.2m).Cargo planes from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have also started arriving in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.Pakistan is also considering importing vegetables from its arch-rival India to alleviate shortfalls after food prices shot up due to lost crops, said finance minister Miftah Ismail.

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People float belongings through a flooded area on the outskirts of Peshawar. Pic: AP

Much of the country has been ravaged by floods since mid-June and more than 30 million people are affected in the country of about 220 million.There are fears the situation could get even worse.Peter Ophoff, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Sky News: “The monsoon season should have stopped by the end of July.”We are now in the end of August, and we still have very heavy rain. Many people are thinking that we haven’t reached a peak yet.”

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Flood damage to homes on the outskirts of Quetta. Pic: AP

He said the floods were the worst in decades and that access is the biggest problem because about 3000km (1,860 miles) of roads have been washed away, as well as 160 bridges.Dr Liz Stephens, associate professor in Climate Risks and Resilience at Reading University said “questions need to be asked” about why these floods are similarly damaging to those in 2010, when nearly 2,000 people died.Though forecasting science has “considerably” improved since the 2010 floods, early warning messages must “reach the communities who are most at risk so that they can move out of harm’s way,” she said.”Unprecedented flooding affects people who could not possibly conceive they were at risk. This is a big challenge, not only for managing risk, but also for the effective communication of early warnings,” Dr Stephens warned.The Queen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both issued messages of support, with the monarch saying she was “deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of life and destruction”.The floods come on top of economic problems in Pakistan caused by factors such as high inflation and a currency that’s been losing value.