weeks after the floods, villages still submerged and millions displaced

In Sindh province, southern Pakistan, entire villages are still surrounded by water on Thursday, October 6, a month after the floods that ravaged the region. Access to the villages is by boat. In one of them, a mosque is underwater, as is a primary school. 200 families lived here. They had to give up everything. Only two brothers returned, to collect the scrap metal from their house. They were home at the end of August, in the middle of the night, when the water started to rise. “The water came from the village next door. It came in so quickly. Because of the rain, we were already a little flooded, but there, it destroyed everything”says one of them.

Since the start of the floods, more than 33 million people have had to leave their homes, the equivalent of half the French population. All around the largest lake in the country, which still overflows, gigantic camps for displaced people continue to welcome families who are waiting for the flood to recede, under the heat and in extreme promiscuity. Of the thousands of families settled, almost all have at least one sick child. Epidemics proliferate because of stagnant water.

With the onset of the decline, the highest villages begin to emerge. Those who return find piles of rubble. The surrounding fields are still submerged. According to the Pakistani authorities, it will take another month before the situation returns to normal.