Monsoon floods and extreme weather have killed more than 130 kids across Asia this year while wrecking thousands of schools and forcing families to flee their homes, according to Save the Children latest announcement. Countries like China, Pakistan, Thailand, Laos and the Philippines are getting hit by storms and monsoons that started earlier than usual because of climate change. Kids can’t go to school and families have nowhere to live as Asia deals with some of its worst flooding in years.
Asia gets hit by more disasters than anywhere else in the world and last year was the hottest on record. The continent is warming up faster than the rest of the planet, which means more people die and countries lose more money from floods, storms, and brutal heat waves. But flooding isn’t the only problem – kids in Nepal don’t have enough water because of drought while other places are dealing with crazy heat.
The damage is massive across multiple countries. Beijing floods in late July forced over 100,000 people to evacuate their homes. Thailand’s northern areas saw flooding hurt 145,000 people. Pakistan’s biggest province got hit by floods starting in June, and more than a quarter of its schools got damaged or completely destroyed. Over 280 people have died since monsoon season started, and 133 of them were children.
The Philippines got hammered by three cyclones back-to-back that destroyed about 1,350 classrooms. More than 200 schools are now being used as shelters for people who lost their homes. Ten-year-old Tel had to stay in an evacuation center after her house flooded and lost all her school stuff.
“I wasn’t able to do my school assignment because all my things got wet,” she said, worried about going back to class.
Save the Children’s Arshad Malik said this year’s flooding is “extremely worrying” and should be a wake-up call for leaders. The group is handing out relief supplies, clean water, and cash to affected families while asking for more money to help kids deal with climate disasters that will only get worse.
