This aerial photograph taken on September 3, 2022 shows a flood-affected woman as she gestures near her tent in Jaffarabad district, Balochistan province. – Monsoon rains have submerged a third of Pakistan, claiming at least 1,190 lives since June and unleashing powerful floods that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.
Photo by BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
A Pakistani writer is warning the international community after deadly flooding in the country.
“You can call these people climate refugees. Remember that phrase,” Fatima Bhutto wrote in The New York Times.
Officials estimate that one in seven people in the country have been impacted by the monsoon rains.
A Pakistani writer is warning the international community about climate change after deadly floods submerged a third of the country, causing millions of people to be displaced.
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Fatima Bhutto wrote climate change likely played a role in the heavy rains.
“So you can call these people climate refugees. Remember that phrase. Your country will have them, too,” she said.
For two months, Pakistan has endured torrential rains that caused the country’s worst flooding in more than a decade. The floodwaters swept away entire buildings, devastated crops, and killed over 1,100 people.
An area about the size of Colorado is now submerged in water, according to Sherry Rehman, the country’s climate minister. Officials estimate that more than 33 million Pakistanis — one in seven people in the country — have been impacted by the monsoon rains.
On August 29, Rehman tweeted that one town in Sindh saw 67 inches of rain in one day: “Unheard of, anywhere,” the minister said.
According to Our World in Data, the country produces less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet is experiencing some of the worst effects of climate change.
Pakistan was ranked in the top 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change in the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index.