New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed his grief over the loss of lives due to floods in Pakistan as the death toll reached 1,136. The Prime Minister said that he hopes for an early restoration of normalcy in the country.
Taking to Twitter, PM Modi wrote, “Saddened to see the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the injured and all those affected by this natural calamity and hope for an early restoration of normalcy.”
As per a report by news agency PTI, the number of people who died during the floods reached 1,136 on Monday while 1,634 people were injured as international aid began trickling in following Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led cash-strapped government's desperate appeal for aid to deal with the crisis that has displaced 33 million or one-seventh of the country's population.
While Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rahman called it “the monster monsoon of the decade”, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that the country’s economy was impacted by USD 10 billion due to the floods.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the country has suffered economic losses of over USD 10 billion due to rains and floods that inundated vast areas, affecting millions of people.
The minister told the media that more than five years would be needed to rebuild the country. He said that the preliminary assessment showed that the losses were huge, saying "it is bigger than $10 billion”.
About 1,051,570 houses were totally or partially damaged, leaving millions of people without food, clean drinking water and shelter, as per the data shared by National Disaster Management Authority, the chief national body tasked to deal with calamities.
Around 7,19,558 livestock are also dead, as millions of acres of fertile farmlands have been inundated by weeks of constant rains.