Pakistan declares emergency as millions affected by floods
Heavy rain pounded much of Pakistan after the government declared an emergency to deal with monsoon flooding it said had affected more than 30 million people.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that more than 900 people had been killed this year as a result of the monsoon rains that began in June.
Officials say this year's floods are comparable to 2010 -- the worst on record -- when over 2,000 people died and nearly a fifth of the country was under water.
A statement from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office said 33 million people had been "badly affected" by the flooding, while the country's disaster agency said nearly 220,000 homes were destroyed and half a million more badly damaged.
Two million acres of cultivated crops had been wiped out in Sindh alone, the provincial disaster agency said, where many farmers live hand-to-mouth, season-to-season.
Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman, who called the floods "a catastrophe of epic scale", said the government had declared an emergency, and appealed for international assistance.
Pakistan is eighth on the Global Climate Risk Index, a list compiled by the environmental NGO Germanwatch of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.
