INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Historic monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan have affected more than 30 million people over the last few weeks, the country&s climate
change minister said on Thursday, calling the situation a &climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.&Pakistan has urged the
international community to help with relief efforts as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of torrential rains that have triggered
massive floods since last month, killing more than 900 people, Reuters reported.&33 million have been affected, in different ways; the final
homeless figure is being assessed,& Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman told Reuters in a text message.She added that the southern
province of Sindh, hardest hit in the last few days, had requested 1 million tents for affected people.&South of Pakistan is inundated
… People are going to higher ground,& she said.&Needs assessment is being done, we have to make U.N.&s international flash appeal; this is
not the task of one country or one province, it is a climate-induced disaster,& she added.Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal
separately told Reuters that 30 million people had been affected, a figure that would represent about 15% of the South Asian country&s
agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Thursday that the monsoon rains had affected some 3
million people in Pakistan of which 184,000 have been displaced to relief camps across the country.Funding and reconstruction efforts will
be a challenge for cash-strapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure that the International Monetary Fund approves the
release of much-needed bailout money, read the report.The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a report that in the last 24
hours 150 kilometres of roads had been damaged across the country and over 82,000 homes have been partially or fully damaged.Since mid-June,
when the monsoon began, over 3,000 kilometres of road, 130 bridges and 495,000 homes have been damaged, according to NDMA&s last situation
report, figures also echoed in the OHCA report.The post Pakistan floods have affected over 30 million people: officials first appeared on
