Pakistan is battling with unprecedented floods that has displaced over 33 million people in the country. Described as the 'worst in country's history', the torrential rain since mid June has affected the normal life of people in the country.
Hundreds of villages in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province have been cut off by flood-swollen rivers washing away roads and bridges. As a consequence, authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to those affected.
To lay bare the devastation caused by sudden flash floods caused by historic monsoon rains, before and after pictures of Pakistan have been released.
The images, from space technology firm Maxar Technologies, show homes and fields in Rojhan in Rajanpur District, Punjab, submerged after floods that have washed away roads, crops, infrastructure and bridges.
Some buildings have been entirely submerged or washed away.Army helicopters plucked stranded families and dropped food packages to inaccessible areas as the historic deluge, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains, destroyed homes, businesses, infrastructure and crops.An estimated 15 per cent (33 million) of the 220-million-strong South Asian nation have been affected so far.
In Gudpur, also in Punjab province, the satellite images captured by Maxar show what was once neatly-divided fields washed away by flowing water and mud.
Pakistan's main rivers, the Indus and the Swat, are still swollen and the National Disaster Management Authority warned emergency services to be on maximum alert, saying floodwaters on Wednesday could cause further damage.Meteorologists have warned of more rains in the coming weeks.
Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, getting 466 per cent more rain than the 30-year average.
The Indus River, which flows down the middle of the country from its northern peaks to southern plains and through Sindh province, is flooded along almost its entire length.Properties and fields along the Indus have been completely inundated.
In the country's south and west, many Pakistanis have crammed onto elevated highways and railroad tracks to escape the flooded plains.A closer view of homes and fields before and during the flooding.
The disaster could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall. The government has declared an emergency appealing for international help.
The United Nations launched a formal $160 million appeal on Tuesday to fund emergency aid. "Pakistan is awash in suffering. The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids -- the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video statement, calling it a "colossal crisis".
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