(Adnkronos) – In Pakistan, more than 200 children have lost their lives since the end of June due to the torrential monsoon rains that have hit the country, and millions of them (about 25 million in Punjab alone) have not been able to attend school due to the record rainfall. This is according to a statement from Save the Children. Large areas of Punjab are completely flooded due to continuous river overflows and forecasts of further rain. In Sialkot, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, rainfall has reached unprecedented levels, with almost 364 mm in just 24 hours. Children and their families need food, drinking water and healthcare: the rains and floods have forced more than 200,000 people to leave their homes.
According to the United Nations, about one million people are currently affected by floods across Pakistan, a number that is likely to increase as the water flows downstream to the neighboring province of Sindh, the area hardest hit by the 2022 floods. About 25 million children in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, have not returned to school, two weeks after the expected end of the summer holidays. Elementary schools for children aged 5 to 13 – about 70% of all schools – remain closed in the province.
Children in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa missed a week of school after cloudbursts – a rare weather phenomenon where more than 100 mm of rain falls in an hour in a very concentrated area – caused flash floods that killed at least 479 people. Some 674 schools have been destroyed or damaged and many classrooms are unusable after torrents of mud and debris swept through villages.
“I have seen places where half the village is buried under huge boulders and where people are still buried under the rubble,” said Rabia Rauf, Save the Children’s Head of Program Operations in Pakistan, who is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “I was told that in one village alone, 200 people died when unstoppable torrents of water, rocks and debris suddenly came down from the mountains. Homes are filled with silt and mud: the flash floods destroyed everything the children and their families owned in seconds, including teaching materials and books. The water came and then went away quickly, but the devastation remains.”
“Children are traumatized and need to feel safe,” she added. “Our temporary learning centers and child-friendly spaces will not only be places to learn, but will also provide children and their families with essential psychological support.”
Save the Children is providing temporary learning spaces for children who cannot return to their devastated classrooms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and life-saving aid, including home and hygiene kits. The organization is also running mobile health and nutrition clinics. The death toll from torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan has tripled compared to the same period last year, the statement said. The death toll has exceeded 800 people, including more than 200 children, since the rains began at the end of June.
According to Save the Children research, about five million children born in 2020 would not have to face river flooding if the global temperature rise were limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Children bear the brunt of the climate crisis, especially those most affected by inequality and those living in low- and middle-income countries, such as Pakistan.
“Once again, children’s lives and education are being disrupted by torrential rains and floods,” said Khuram Gondal, Save the Children’s Country Director in Pakistan. “Once again they are losing everything to the devastating rains: homes, clothes, food, drinking water. Once again school classrooms are filled with mud or schools are closed. Due to the unprecedented floods of 2022, children lost more than half of the school year. We must act now to ensure that children do not suffer disruptions to their learning. Education in emergencies, such as these floods that are causing so much devastation in Pakistan, saves lives.”
Save the Children has been working in Pakistan since 1979 and was the first international organization to respond to the 2022 flood emergency, reaching more than 1.1 million people in the affected areas, including about 600,000 children. Save the Children co-leads the Education in Emergencies (Eie) working group in Pakistan.
