Sharjah 24 – AFP: Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were Monday battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country's main river threatening to burst its banks.
Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said a third of the country was under water, creating a "crisis of unimaginable proportions".
Officials say 1,061 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off after flood-swollen rivers washed away roads and bridges.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but it can also bring destruction.
This year's flooding has affected more than 33 million people -- one in seven Pakistanis -- said the National Disaster Management Authority.
This year's floods are comparable to those of 2010 -- the worst on record -- when more than 2,000 people died.
Flood victims have taken refuge in makeshift camps that have sprung up across the country, where desperation is setting in.
Millions of acres of rich farmland have been flooded by weeks of non-stop rain, but now the Indus is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water course downstream from tributaries in the north.
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