In the highly polarised atmosphere prevalent in the country triggered by the animosity between PTI and other political parties, the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of the country were interestingly found to be in unison in their viewpoints about the recent flood that lashed three-fourths of the country. The two poles apart, the President and the PM, have termed encroachment of rivers and waterways as the major factor in causing the devastating floods that wreaked havoc in eighty districts of the country, bringing to it a colossal loss of 30 billion US dollars.
According to the preliminary assessments, as of September 8th, about 1400 people lost their lives; 1.1 million houses were destroyed; 5000 kilometers of roads and 243 bridges were affected, and the standing crops and orchards on 3.6 million acres of land directly affected 5.2 million people. The disaster has caused a lot of pain for the country and its people, and it will continue to do so for a long time. A big chunk of the country’s development budget will be used to fix up the damaged infrastructure and fight the poverty it has caused.