Catastrophic flooding continues in Pakistan

Much of the country looks like this aerial shot of the northern Pakistani city of Charsadda. It’s "a climate dystopia on our doorstep," said Pakistan's Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman. According to the Statistical Meteorological Office, there has been twice as much rainfall across the country than usual at this time of year. In some areas, even four times as much.

A group of men near Peshawar use a makeshift raft to carry their belongings to higher ground. Pakistan is currently being hit by the worst floods since 2010, when almost a fifth of the country was under water, and more than 2,000 people died.

Like so many others, this man lost his house in Jafarabad to the floods. Since the monsoon rains began in June, nearly one million homes have been destroyed or damaged, and entire villages have been washed away. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, this year's flooding has affected more than 33 million people, one-seventh of the population.

The floods have hit Pakistan in the middle of a severe economic crisis. Rising commodity prices were already causing hardship, but now prices for staple foods like onions, tomatoes and chickpeas are also skyrocketing. According to government figures, the state of Pakistan itself has recently come close to insolvency.

The IMF is set to decide on Aug. 29 whether to approve the resumption of a $6 billion loan program to help Pakistan service its external debt. This does not take into account the funds the country will need to repair the damage caused by this monsoon season, not to mention aid for the people who have been affected.

Thousands of people displaced by the floods are now living in temporary camps like this one in Charsadda. Many are located along highways and railroad tracks because their embankments are often the only dry ground to be found. Each day, more people arrive with what belongings they were able to rescue from the water.

Rescue workers unload tents for those stranded by the floods in the Swat Valley on Aug. 28. Planes from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have begun bringing supplies to the capital of Islamabad, and Pakistan's National Disaster Management Agency has also begun distributing relief. But one senior officer reported that there are hardly any landing sites available in the affected areas.

The floods have affected all four provinces in Pakistan. Countless roads and bridges have been destroyed, making relief efforts difficult. This family in Peshawar has taken shelter in a tent. Whether they can also be supplied with food will only become clear in the coming days. But the weather forecast is some cause for hope: There is no rain expected in the coming week.