HIDDEN COSTS

Estimations of loss and damage after weather events do not account for non-economic consequences

- AKSHIT SANGOMLA and AVANTIKA GOSWAMI

FOR 40 days and 40 nights a biblical flood poured down on us, smashing centuries of weather records, challenging everything we knew about disaster, and how to manage it," Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly on September 23, describing the incessant rainfall the country received throughout the monsoon months from June to September. In July and August, Pakistan recorded 391 mm rainfallnearly 190 per cent more than the 30-year average-triggering flash floods and landslides, and inundating one-third of the country.

The southern province of Sindh received 466 per cent more rain than average. "When we have a 100 km lake that has developed in the middle of Pakistan, tell me how big of a drain can I build to manage this? There is no man-made structure that can evacuate this water," said Pakistan's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari at a news conference.

Rising waters forced temporary displacement of 7.9 million people, as per a recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The agency said as of October 1, some 1,700 people had died. Over 33 million peoplemore than the population of Australia-were affected by floods.

Just as the water began to recede in Pakistan, Nigeria too reported one of the worst flooding events it has seen in recent history. Death toll in the West African nation has crossed the 600-mark, the country's humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted on October 16. The flood, which has spread across all the 36 states, has affected 2.5 million people and destroyed more than 200,000 homes.

Large swathes of farmland have also been destroyed, the ministry said.

Nigeria's meteorological agency has warned flooding could continue until the end of November in some states.