ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs more than $10 billion to repair and rebuild infrastructure damaged by monster monsoon rains that have caused devastating flooding, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday.
“Massive damage has been caused to infrastructure, especially in the areas of telecommunications, roads, agriculture and livelihoods,” the Planning Minister said while talking to media.
Ahsan Iqbal reiterated that he believed that the cost of the damage caused by floods would be “huge”.
“So far, very early, preliminary estimate is that it is big, it is higher than $10 billion,” Iqbal said, adding that there was damage to almost nearly one million houses”.
“People have actually lost their complete livelihoods,” he continued, rating the recent floods worst than those that hit Pakistan in 2010.
The minister said it might take five years to rebuild and rehabilitate the nation, while in the near term it will be confronted with acute food shortages.
Separately, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has also estimated that the economic impact of floods would be at least $10bn, which roughly translates to three per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
The estimates have come as Pakistan reels from the impact of torrential rains and unprecedented floods, which have claimed over 1,000 lives, affected more than 33 million — almost 15pc of the country’s 220m population — people and submerged most of the country.
Read more: Pakistan, UN issue flash appeal for donations of $160m to help country with floods
