Heavy rains set off flash floods and lightning strikes have killed dozens of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two neighboring countries that have been disposed to the natural disasters on every seasonal rains.
At least 39 people were killed in Pakistan due to lightning and heavy rains according to emergency response officials, and also a state of emergency was declared in the southwest of the country. Most of the victims were blamed on farmers being struck by lightning and torrential rain collapsing their houses, said Arfan Kathia, regional disaster management spokesman. Kathia said that more rains are expected in the coming week.
Addressing the nation, the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has instructed the related authorities to rush aid to the affected regions, but it has been reported that roads going to the flood-hit areas had been severely damaged.
Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces have been affected the most, and local media reported that Gwadar port in Balochistan has suffered several damages.
Afghanistan and Pakistan prone to natural disaster
In neighboring Afghanistan, at least 33 people had lost their lives and more two dozen received injuries as a result of heavy flooding from seasonal rains.
A Taliban spokesman for disaster management agency, Abdullah Janan Saiq said that the flash floods hit Kabul, the capital city and provinces including western Farah, Heart, southern Zabul and Kandahar.
Saiq said that the floods also killed 200 livestock and destroyed over 600 houses and damaged 800 hectares of farmland and 85 kilometers of roads. Afghan officials had provided aid to nearly 23,000 families.
The uneasy-neighbor, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been placed among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate crisis, following extreme flood-related damage and heavy rains causing flash floods.
Iin 2022, Pakistan suffered its worst floods on record in which over 1,191 people, including 399 children have been killed, while 33 million people out of the country’s 220 million population have been affected. Millions of people were also internally displaced and since then, repeated disasters have impacted victims every year.
In 2022 Pakistan suffered unbroken cycle of monsoon rains with $10b damage
Pakistan had never seen an unbroken cycle of monsoon rains like 2022 as eight weeks of non-stop torrents have left huge swathes of Pakistan underwater and also caused more than $10 billion in damage.
Indeed, the climate crisis can be blamed for the recent floods in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but at the same time it is the responsibility of the government to take precautionary measures to prevent massive scale of destruction.
A Pakistani environmental expert, Rafay Alam said that heavy rainfalls in April is unusual, adding that two years ago, Pakistan witnessed heat waves in March and April and now its rain, blaming the climate change behind it. He also linked 2022 deadly flooding as a result of climate change.
50 people killed during Eid days in Afghanistan
Despite natural disasters and flooding that claim lives, traffic incidents and carelessness of the drivers are another major threat to the lives of people. At least 50 people have lost their lives in 102 traffic incidents in various parts of Afghanistan during the three days of Eid.
Afghanistan General Traffic Department in a statement said that 25 men, eight women, and 13 children are among the victims and another 185 people received severe and light injuries.
The department blamed carelessness of the drivers, excessive speeding, lack of visibility and traffic signs and driving of vehicles by the children as the prime factors behind traffic incidents.
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