By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Meteorological Department on Thursday warned of heavy rains lashing the country until early September, as devastating monsoon downpours and flash floods have already claimed at least 739 lives since late June, displacing thousands and ravaging homes, schools and crops across the vulnerable South Asian nation.
The northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has borne the brunt of the deluge, with torrential rains between August 15 and 19 unleashing flash floods and landslides that prompted authorities to declare a state of emergency in nine districts, including Buner, Shangla and Mansehra.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported 739 deaths nationwide, with KP alone accounting for a significant share, alongside 978 injuries and the destruction or damage of more than 2,400 houses.
Over 1,000 livestock have perished, and nearly 100 schools in KP have been affected, heightening risks for children already facing displacement and limited access to safe water.
In Punjab, extensive flooding along the Indus and Chenab rivers has displaced more than 2,300 families and damaged cash crops across thousands of acres.
Sindh province saw urban flooding in Karachi, the financial hub, where up to 145 millimetres of rain fell on August 19, causing wall collapses and electrocutions that killed at least 10 people, according to local reports.
Other accounts put the toll in the port city as high as 14 over recent days, with relentless downpours exposing crumbling infrastructure, inundating roads and triggering power outages.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) attributed the extreme weather to strong monsoon currents, forecasting widespread rain-wind and thundershowers in most parts, including heavy falls in Karachi, Punjab, KP, Sindh and Balochistan through the end of August and into early September.
“Mainly hot and humid weather is expected in most parts of the country. Widespread rain-wind/thundershower is expected in upper and central parts from 21st to 27th with occasional gaps,” the PMD noted in its outlook, warning of flash floods in streams across Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Nowshera, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, northeastern Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Dera Ghazi Khan’s hill torrents.
Urban flooding threatens low-lying areas of Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan, while landslides could block roads in KP, Gilgit-Baltistan, Murree, Galliyat and Kashmir.Pakistan, despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, where annual monsoons essential for agriculture and rural livelihoods have turned increasingly erratic and destructive amid shifting weather patterns linked to global warming. The 2022 floods, fuelled by unprecedented rains and glacier melt, killed over 1,700 people and inflicted $40 billion in losses, underscoring the growing toll on a nation still recovering from past disasters.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by the terrain and ongoing rains, with about 2,000 personnel mobilized for evacuations and relief, dispatching food, tents and medical supplies.
In KP, where 328 deaths were reported from August 14-16 alone, including 274 in Buner district, rescuers have recovered dozens of bodies but face criticism for delays.
“Heavy rainfall, landslides in several areas and washed-out roads are causing significant challenges in delivering aid, particularly in transporting heavy machinery and ambulances,” said Bilal Ahmed Faizi, a spokesman for KP’s rescue agency.
“Due to road closures in most areas, rescue workers are traveling on foot to conduct operations in remote regions. They are trying to evacuate survivors, but very few people are relocating due to the deaths of their relatives or loved ones being trapped in the debris.”The provincial government suspended four senior officials in Swat, including the deputy commissioner and rescue head, and ordered an inquiry into response lapses, admitting a “45-minute window” to act that turned a “small mistake into a major tragedy,” according to Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah.
Compensation of 1.5 million rupees was announced for each victim’s family, while a ban on riverbed mining and crackdown on illegal encroachments along the Swat River were launched.
Federal and provincial authorities, coordinating with UN agencies like UNICEF, have dispatched essential medicines, hygiene kits and supplies to prevent disease outbreaks, particularly among children, with at least 21 young lives lost in KP since August 15.
A helicopter crash on August 15 during relief operations in Mohmand district killed five, including retired military personnel, prompting a day of mourning.
Criticism has mounted, with Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari decrying the transport of bodies in garbage dumpers as “deeply disrespectful” and calling for KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur’s resignation.
Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar labelled it a “governance failure,” while KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi echoed demands for accountability over the “shameful failure.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reached across political lines, contacting leaders to coordinate aid, expressing grief over the losses and pledging full federal support to affected provinces, directing the NDMA to issue advance warnings and assist local authorities.
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