“Portugal sympathises with Pakistan for the tragic impacts
caused by the floods”, reads a message published, in Portuguese and English, on
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Twitter account.
“We are deeply saddened by the devastating and tragic impact
of the floods in Pakistan. Portugal shows solidarity with the Pakistani people.
Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families.”
The monsoon season is usually the wettest season in
Pakistan, but the country is experiencing rainfall levels this year that are nearly
triple the seasonal averages.
Pakistani emergency services have raised the provisional
number of fatalities to more than 1,100 after the rainy season that has plagued
the country for weeks and which led the government to declare a state of
calamity in more than 50 districts.
The government's provisional assessment of the floods also
shows that more than 1,600 people were injured, more than a million houses were
totally or partially destroyed, 700,000 cattle were lost and about 800,000
hectares of farmland were flooded.
In total terms, more than 33 million people have already
been affected by the floods that have submerged a third of the country.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), António
Guterres, will travel to Pakistan next week, on a trip to express his
solidarity with the millions of Pakistanis who have been affected by the severe
floods in the country.
This year's monsoon is only comparable to the devastating
floods of 2010, the deadliest in Pakistan's history, which at the time claimed
more than 2,000 lives.