Flood Losses Now Estimated at $40 Billion: Pakistan Officials

The damage from this summer’s catastrophic flooding in Pakistan is now estimated at $40 billion, as much as 25% higher than projections a month ago in another blow to the cash-strapped country.

The new estimate was shared in the first meeting of the Pakistan Climate Change Council, the office of the Prime Minister said in statement on Wednesday, as the government prepares to present evidence of Pakistan’s vulnerability to natural calamities before the United Nations. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last month said losses from the floods exceed $30 billion.

Pakistan is trying to recover from the massive floods that killed more than 1,700 people, an effort complicated by deteriorating foreign currency reserves and rising prices. Worries over the country’s ability to pay its debt resurfaced after the flooding inspite of a $1.1 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in August. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Pakistan’s credit rating deeper into junk earlier this month.

“We do not have a full overview of Pakistan’s damage and losses from the floods, beyond what Pakistani authorities are continuously sharing, but we can confirm that they will be extraordinary, and that the recovery and reconstruction will require significant resources,” the World Bank said when asked to confirm the latest estimates.

The World Bank said it’s part of a group initiating a post-disaster assessment along with the Pakistan government, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union and the UN Development Programme.

“Despite having less than 1% share in global carbon emission, Pakistan is one of the ten countries most affected by climate change,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in the statement.

Pakistan suffered overwhelming events including severe drought, forest fires, heat waves, glacier melting at three times the average rate this year, according to the statement. The UN’s climate change conference is scheduled for next month.