Floods damage over 1,500 schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

ISLAMABAD -- Recent floods have damaged at least 1,500 government schools in different parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, KP education minister said.

Flooding, likely worsened by climate change, has submerged one-third of Pakistan's territory, killed over 1,600 people, and left 33 million scrambling to survive. The initial government estimate of losses to the economy as a result of the three-month flooding disaster is $30 billion.

The consequences have been especially horrific for children, who make up about half the affected population.

More than 400 children have been killed in the floods, and many more were injured.

UNICEF said at least 3.4 million children need urgent humanitarian assistance and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning, and malnutrition. Most of the approximately 16 million affected children are without homes, lack access to safe drinking water, and are living in unsanitary conditions.

Save the Children said earlier this month that at least 18,590 schools have been damaged or destroyed in the flooding, with initial estimates that at least 670,000 children have been affected, although the real number could be much higher.

With whole villages underwater and rain continuing to fall, thousands of students across the country who had been preparing for the start of the academic year have found their schools completely submerged, with books, blackboards, chairs, and tables floating downstream.

Shahram Khan Tarakai, provincial minister for elementary and secondary education, said in an interview with Arab News at least 1,500 government-run schools had been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

'The scale of damages is massive and we've launched a comprehensive survey to identify construction cost, the exact number of damaged schools, and the number of students studying in those institutions,' he said. 'Most of the schools need rebuilding from scratch. We also need to reconstruct the damaged schools in new locations to minimize the scale of the catastrophe in the future.'

Assessments of rebuilding costs were being carried out by the education department, the minister said, adding that a month's school time for students had already been wasted. The government was also...