- More than a third of the country is underwater and more than 33 million Pakistanis, one in seven, have been affected
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| The floods in Pakistan, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1. / ESA |
Stunning images from space of the devastating floods in Pakistan
Pakistan has been suffering from an intense monsoon rainy season since June 14, with rainfall that is causing devastating floods. The European Space Agency (ESA) released this Thursday some photographs captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite on August 30 that show the magnitude of the catastrophe.
The agency explains that the images were used to map the scope of the situation caused by rains "ten times more intense than usual." In fact, the Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has described the floods as the worst in the country's history and has estimated the cost of repairing the damaged infrastructure at 10,000 million dollars.
The latest balance offered by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) speaks of 1,191 deaths, 399 of them children, while 3,641 people have been injured. More than a third of the country is underwater and more than 33 million Pakistanis, one in seven, have been affected.
ESA notes that the left side of the satellite image shows a wide view of the affected area and the image on the right zooms in on the area between Dera Murad Jamali and Larkana. The Indus River has overflowed its banks, creating a lake tens of kilometers wide, and the blue to black colors show where the land is submerged.
The Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been activated to provide flood maps from space to help deal with the crisis. The European Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission carries a radar instrument to 'see' through clouds and the darkness of rain, which "makes it particularly useful for monitoring floods".
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