KARACHI: The president of a leading farmers association this week estimated that losses from devastating floods in Pakistan’s breadbasket province of Punjab may have already caused losses in billions of rupees for farmers, while financial analysts feared the impending shortage of agricultural commodities could lead to inflation and impact exports.
Heavy monsoon rains and excess water released by Indian dams have caused catastrophic floods in Punjab since last week. According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), at least 41 people have been killed by the deluges in the last 10 days while over two million have been affected by the floods.
The destruction brought about the heavy rains have raised the death toll from floods and heavy rains this monsoon season to 863, as per the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest situation report. Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has reported the highest deaths since Jun. 26, 484, while Punjab has reported 216 deaths, Sindh 58, northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 41, Azad Kashmir 30 and Balochistan 28 deaths. Islamabad has reported eight casualties so far from rain-related incidents. A total of 9,166 houses have been damaged by the floods across the country while 6,180 livestock have perished, according to the NDMA.
