Pakistan PM calls for rich to help country's flood victims
Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday (27 August) visited a flood hit region of his country and appealed to the rich to help the victims in poor areas.
Historic monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan have killed more than 900 people and affected more than 30 million people over the last few weeks, the country's climate change minister said this week, calling the situation a "climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions".
During a visit to review rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas of villages in Sujawal, Sindh province, the prime minister was given a detailed briefing over the situation and the relief efforts.
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Elsewhere in Sindh province, in Khairpur, people complained of not getting any help from the government after their houses were destroyed by the floods.
"There is no administration here. The DC (deputy commissioner) is doing nothing. Houses are collapsing and water is standing here. It has been raining for more than a week rather than ten days. You can see there, my house has collapsed – a total loss -- and I could not save anything from it," said an unidentified local resident.
Pakistani leaders have appealed to the international community for help and plan to launch an international appeal fund.
The military has joined the country's national and provincial authorities in responding to the floods and the country's army chief on Saturday visited the southern province of Balochistan, which has been hit heavily by the rains.
