Nearly 1,300 people have died as a result of Pakistan’s catastrophic floods. The death toll since June has reached 1,290 with 29 people dying in the last 24 hours, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Saturday.

Pakistani government agencies and NGOs continue with their relief operations in large parts of the country- particularly the provinces of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh in the south Pakistan.

Initial damage have been estimated at USD 10 billion but surveys are being done by the NGOs to estimate the net loss to catastrophic floods in Pakistan.

At least, 1,468,019 houses have been partially or totally damaged while 736,459 livestock have been killed in the flood. More than 500,000 people are currently living in relief camps across Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Punjab, reports said.

So far, 723,919 families have received the 25,000 cash per family as a part of relief and an amount of Rs 18.25 billion has been disbursed, Shazia Mari, Federal Minister of poverty alleviation and social safety, said.

Despite challenges, Benazir Income Support Programme rolled out its operations within no time after the announcement by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, she had also tweeted.

Highlighting the effects of climate change in the South Asian nation, the disaster management chief Akhtar Nawaz told at the high-level meeting that the floods that have inundated a third of the country – affecting more than 33 million people – were preceded by four heatwaves and multiple raging forest fires.

Pakistan’s farmers are still counting their losses from the devastating floods that have put a third of the country under water and wiped-out acres of fertile agricultural land.

The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will arrive in Pakistan to inspect flood hit area on September 9, after a USD 160 million emergency plan was launched by the UN.

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