Flood damages amount to $9.5b: officials

Damage inflicted to property, crops and infrastructure equal $9.5 billion according to assessment by ADB, WB.

KARACHI: Pakistan's floods inflicted $9.5 billion in damage to property, crops and infrastructure, according to an Asian Development Bank and World Bank assessment, finance ministry officials said on Wednesday.

"The total loss is $9.5 billion dollars according to the report," one of the officials told Reuters.

Ministry officials said they believed total recovery costs would be $30 billion, although they had not seen the report.

This figure includes what Pakistan needs for reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and compensation of losses. If correct, it will likely disappoint the government, which has estimated recovery costs at $43 billion and needs all the aid it can secure.

The floods left over 10 million people homeless and affected 20 million.

According to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) estimates, 1.9m houses have been damaged or destroyed. The shelter cluster has managed to reach only 20% of 2.7 million people that need emergency shelter. Cluster agencies have managed to reach 384,500 households with emergency shelter since early August.