Floods Cost Lives

 

The climate crisis is changing the world as we know it

In Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Chad and South Sudan flooding affected a total of 38.7 million people, according to The International Disasters Database, with thousands of people killed and millions displaced. Water levels left a trail of destruction in each country, with homes submerged, crops destroyed, and schools forced to close. The five countries most affected by flooding with available Acute Food Insecurity Data all suffer from high levels of food insecurity, meaning they are all in the grips of a hunger crisis that is being accelerated by climate disasters. It will take months, if not years, to repair the flood damage in all five countries.

Widespread flooding over the past three months has thrown the lives of about 19 million children off course in the top five most impacted countries, Save the Children said. Torrential monsoon rains, accelerated by glacial melt, triggered record-breaking flash flooding in Pakistan this summer, which severely impacted about 16 million children -- the highest number of children affected by flooding in a single country this year.

The floods disproportionately hit the most vulnerable households in the poorest areas of Pakistan, washing away livestock and millions of acres of farmland and submerging entire villages. As a direct result of the flooding, between 8.4 to 9.1 million people may be pushed into poverty. The number of people going hungry in Pakistan has also soared by an alarming 45%, with 8.62 million people now facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity -- 3.4 million of them children.

In Nigeria, where about 19 million people were already experiencing crisis-levels of hunger or worse, extreme flooding has destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. More than 1.25 million children have been affected by the worst floods to hit Nigeria in a decade. With at least 250 schools destroyed and millions of people forced to flee their homes.

One-third of the world's child population is living with the dual impacts of poverty and high climate risk, according to a recent Save the Children report. The research also found that 80% of children are estimated to be affected by at least one extreme climate event a year.

Yolande Wright, Save the Children's Global Director Child Poverty, Climate and Urban, said, "It is extremely alarming how many countries have suffered from record-breaking flooding this year, let alone in the past three months. When looking at the total scale of how the climate crisis is affecting children around the world, it is almost unimaginable. About 38.7 million people around the world have had their lives turned upside down by extreme flooding in the five worst affected countries, including about 19 million children. Many of these children are still reeling from the effects of the floods and require urgent assistance."

Extreme floods throw the lives of 19 million children off course in past three months – Save the Children - Pakistan | ReliefWeb