CNN —
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change will not spare other countries the kind of disaster that has left up to a third of his country submerged and millions of his children at risk of waterborne diseases.
He urged the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to come together and “act now” before it’s too late.
“One thing is very clear, what happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Sharif told world leaders.
“For 40 days and 40 nights, a biblical flood spilled, shattering centuries of weather records and challenging everything we knew about disasters and how to deal with them,” Sharif said.
He went on to give first-hand details of the scale and scope of the disaster that lies ahead for his country, where floods caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers have claimed more than 1,600 lives since June.
Sharif said parts of the country “are still underwater, immersed in an ocean of human suffering”.
“At this climate change ground zero, 33 million people, including women and children, are now at high health risk,” he said.
Authorities have warned it could take up to six months for floodwaters to recede in the country’s hardest-hit areas as fears mount over the threat of waterborne diseases like cholera and dengue.
The Flood left 3.4 million children in need of “immediate, life-saving assistance,” according to UNICEF, leaving them vulnerable to waterborne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.
“The undeniable and uncomfortable truth is that this disaster wasn’t caused by anything we did,” he said.
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s greenhouse gases warming the planet, European Union data shows, yet it is the eighth nation hardest hit by the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
It pays a high price, not only in lives but also in destroyed schools, houses and bridges.
Sharif said life in Pakistan has changed forever and fears the country will be “left high and dry alone to deal with the crisis we did not create”.
He stated that it was “perfectly reasonable” to expect an adjustment of justice for this loss and damage, warning that “the time to talk about action is clearly up”.
The country’s national disaster management agency says 579 of the 1,606 deaths recorded so far are children.
Sharif told the UN that in addition to the lives lost, a million homes were destroyed and another million damaged. He also said more than a million livestock were killed and four million acres of crops were washed away.
He said he was “fully committed” to Pakistan’s recovery but warned other countries to focus on the future, which includes tackling climate change.
“It is high time we took a break from the concerns of the 20th century to face the challenges of the 21st century,” Sharif said.
“The entire definition of national security has changed today. And unless world leaders come together to act and act now on an agreed common agenda, there will be no earth for wars to be fought over. Nature will fight back. And humanity is not suited for that at all.”