Torrential rains in Pakistan are ‘climate carnage’, warns UN chief

Published on: 09/10/2022 – 20:14 The UN Secretary General said on Saturday, from Pakistan, that he had “never seen climate carnage of this magnitude”, following the floods that devastated southern country. Antonio Guterres urged rich countries to come to the aid of developing countries hard hit by climate change, like Pakistan. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on a visit to Pakistan devastated by floods, is sounding the alarm. He declared, Saturday September 10, to have “never seen a climatic carnage of this magnitude” and called on the big polluters to “stop this madness” consisting in still investing in fossil fuels. “I have seen many disasters world, but I have never seen climate carnage of this magnitude. I simply have no words to describe what I saw today,” Antonio Guterres told a conference in press in Karachi, on the second day of his visit which took him to the flooded southern regions.Nearly 1,400 people have died since June in these floods caused by torrential monsoon rains, the intensity of which is increased by the global warming, say experts and Pakistani officials. They covered a third of Pakistan – an area the size of the UK – destroying homes, businesses, roads, bridges and agricultural crops. Antonio Guterres said he hoped his visit would galvanize support for Pakistan. The government’s flood relief center has estimated the provisional cost of the disaster at more than $30 billion. The UN calls for solidarity between rich and developing countries “Rich countries have a moral responsibility to help developing countries like Pakistan to recover from such disasters and adapt to strengthen their resilience to climate impacts which, unfortunately, will be repeated in the future,” said Antonio Guterres, stressing that the G20 countries were responsible 80% of current greenhouse gas emissions. Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of these emissions, but is in eighth position among the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena caused by climate change, according to the NGO Germanwatch.>> Read also: After heat waves, the deluge: Pakistan on the front line of climate change For the UN Secretary General, financial aid is “not a question of generosity, it is a question of justice”. Pakistan, heavily indebted, seems far from being able to finance its reconstruction alone. “Pakistan and other developing countries are paying a horrible price for the intransigence of the big emitters, who continue to bet on fossil fuels”, had tweeted Antonio Guterres earlier, before heading south. “Invest now in renewable energy” “From Islamabad, I am launching a global call: stop this madness. Invest now in renewable energy. End the war against nature”, he had asserted. About 33 million people were affected by the floods, which destroyed an estimated two million homes and businesses, washed away 7,000 kilometers of roads and collapsed 500 bridges. According to the meteorological office, the country received five times more rain than normal in 2022. In addition, Pakistan this year faced a heat wave that sometimes exceeded 50°C, ravaging forest fires and devastating floods caused by the rapid melting of the glaciers. “All the children, the men and the women are roasting in this scorching heat. We have nothing to eat, no roof over our heads”, testified Friday to AFP Rozina Solangi, a 30-year-old housewife living in a displacement camp near Sukkur. “He has to do something for us poor people,” she added, of the UN official’s visit. >> To read also: Under water, is Pakistan at risk of bankruptcy like Sri Lanka? Thousands of makeshift camps have appeared in the few still dry spaces in the south and west of the country – often roads and railways. With people piled on top of each other, accompanied by their livestock, epidemics are to be feared. Many cases of dengue fever, a disease spread by mosquitoes, and scabies have already been recorded. During his quick visit, Antonio Guterres stopped at some of these makeshift camps and met desperate flood victims, including a woman who gave birth during the night. He then inspected the 4,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site Mohenjo-daro, damaged by the rains. With AFP