ISLAMABAD: Beijing will offer Pakistan $14 million relief supplies after widespread destruction in the South Asian country from monsoon rains and floods, the Chinese embassy announced on Friday.
Monsoon rains and India’s release of excess water flooded rivers, mainly in Pakistan’s breadbasket Punjab province, in late August, submerging more than 4,700 villages and affecting over 4.7 million people, according to Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed.
The deluges killed more than 1,006 and forced authorities to relocate more than 2.6 million people in Punjab to safety after their homes were washed away by water torrents. The floods submerged crops over more than 2.5 million acres of land in the region.
China, which is a major investment partner of Pakistan, last month extended $2 million emergency assistance to Islamabad to deal with the deadly floods, according to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad.
“China will offer additional flood relief supplies worth 100 million yuan RMB ($14 million) to further support Pakistan’s efforts in disaster relief and reconstruction,” the embassy said on Friday.
Monsoon season brings Pakistan up to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, but increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns are turning the annual rains, which are vital for agriculture, food security and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, into a destructive force.
The disaster revived memories of the 2022 deluges, when a third of the country was submerged, over 1,700 people were killed and losses exceeded $35 billion.
This month, the United Nations also allocated $5 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support Pakistan’s response efforts to the devastating floods, UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.
