The scale of the flooding in Pakistan is incomprehensibly large. 30M+ people are displaced from their homes, spreading across the nation from North to South. With such a vast need for food, shelter, and medical aid, we decided to first focus on the weakest villages. Pakistan is facing crises, including Health problems.
Compaign
They began working with local partners to classify high-risk communities in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). To complement these in-country companies, they traveled with the tactical team at Aerial Recovery Group, which allowed us to reach places that are otherwise inaccessible and unlikely to receive any aid. Collectively, our team came prepared to provide food, hygiene, medical treatment, rescue, and removal.
Threats of Flood
Within our first 24 hours in-country, they began bringing Family Necessity kits, which can sustain a family of 8+ for 1-2 weeks. We quickly discovered that families have been whirling through toxic waters to grasp food, which is hard to come by. This has led to aquatic illnesses, turning minor wounds into life-threatening situations. These societies are also facing threats from snakes and other animals who are fighting to stay alive amidst flooded sustenance. After the acute Phase 1 of this rejoinder, they will begin to strengthen partnerships that will enable us to distribute in-kind aid across the country. These partnerships will involve NGOs, the government, and the secluded sector actors. As villagers carried out the forms of two children, saturated in mud, the large crowd looked impassive.
Swabi, KPK
They had met in a small village in the Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a flash flood washed away several houses, trapping dozens beneath the rubble. Some of them watched on as the dead children were taken away, others sustained their conversations, and the rest, along with a few rescue personnel and military personnel, kept searching for survivors with their tools and bare hands.
Behavior of Villagers
There were no tears, there was no fright. But there was anger. For many villagers, it was the fact that the floods came with no cautionary. “Why didn’t the government warn us sooner?” was the irresistible sentiment. But there was also rage at a perceived lack of provision from local officials. “We need the right tackle to carry out this rescue,” Arif Khan, who was serving to dig out the bodies, told us. “There were about 15 houses here; we need an earthmover.”
Nisar Ahmed
Although emergency teams and the military were there to help, the tackle Arif had been begging for was trapped a few hundred metres away, unable to get finished a flooded road. “The ambulances, medicines, and diggers are very much on the way,” Nisar Ahmad, the commissioner for the Mardan District, told us. But they were still not able to spread the village due to the scale of the flooding. Throughout the day, the villagers continued removing the debris, as well as the bodies.
2022
Scenes like this are not new in Pakistan. Since June alone, rainy season rains have killed about 800 people across the country. In 2022, monsoon rains killed about 1,700 people, which cost Pakistan $14.9bn (£11.1bn) in damages and $16.3bn in recovery and rebuilding needs, according to the World Bank.
Paying a big price for ‘international sins’
Pakistan’s geography makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change, with the country having to contend with not just heavy monsoon rains, but extreme temperatures and drought. Its melting glaciers have also created new lakes at risk of glacial outbursts. These are getting worse because of climate change, according to Dr Syed Faisal Saeed, chief meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).
Monsoon Rains
“Monsoon rains are likely to increase in the coming decades, so this issue is not a one-year fix,” he says. Yet, this is a bitter pill to swallow for many, given that Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. There is a feeling that it is paying a big price for “international sins”, says Dr Amjad Ali Khan, a member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s National Assembly, who advises the chief minister on climate issues. His province is where most deaths have been recorded during this year’s monsoons.
Senator Sherry Rehman
This is a sentiment shared across the political spectrum. The former federal climate minister, Senator Sherry Rehman, recently argued, “When lives are lost in the Global South, when rivers erupt their banks, and when livelihoods vanish, there is no real money for climate-vulnerable republics like Pakistan”. Some argue the country struggles with how to spend its own money.
Climate Change
Climate resiliency will likely always contend with other priorities – such as defense – as this year’s federal budget has shown. Amid an overall reduction in spending, the budget for the Ministry of Climate Change was slashed to about $9.7m (£7.6m). Defence spending was hiked up to about $9bn (£6.93bn). Ms Rehman slammed the cuts and argued that they send the wrong message. When the budget was announced, she asked: “If we are not seen investing in our own flexibility, why would others support us?”
IMF
Some of the worst affairs of flooding affairs occurred in rural, mountainous regions. The Ministry of Climate Change’s budget doesn’t reflect climate funding in Pakistan, argues Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an expert in climate risk management. Under its agreement with the IMF, the federal government also earmarked more than $2bn more in climate-related spending. Yet, Mr Sheikh says it includes some existing projects, such as dams and hydropower.
PMD
He says the budget aside, there are more than 1,000 unfinished development projects across sectors. With no short-term fix to the impacts of climate change, early warning of these extreme weather events is a priority for the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). Extreme weather events such as cloudbursts are hard to predict in advance. They’re caused by a sudden updraft in humid, moist air, which leads to a heavy and localized burst of rain. These have wrecked villages in recent days.
Dr. Saeed
But Dr. Saeed has said that while these can’t be predicted days in advance, the general situations that can lead to a cloudburst can be identified. “When the PMD warns of heavy rainfall, all the districts should start preparing,” says Dr Saeed, though he does acknowledge that the PMD needs to improve its system.
“I’m not saying it’s perfect.”
Impact of Flood
As part of an initiative with the World Bank, the PMD is acquiring new radars and automatic weather stations, while also working to improve its short-range modeling. A bigger challenge is getting the word out. Some of the worst episodes this summer happened in the countryside, mountainous regions, where network connectivity is inferior. A weather app or social media accounts won’t do these societies much good. PMD is trialling new methods to address this, alongside the United Nations Development Program. From the capital Islamabad, the PMD can trigger alarms installed in glacial valleys in northern Pakistan that are vulnerable to extreme flooding from glacial lake outbursts. But officials acknowledge this is not a silver bullet, as the harm this year has shown.
Laws that go ignored
Part of the reason is that the most vulnerable communities live by riverbeds. While several laws, such as the “River Protection Act” – which forbids construction within 200 ft. (61m) of a river or its branches – have been passed, people not only haven’t moved, they’ve also been nonstop building in these areas. “You would be erasing villages,” says Dr Khan, adding that people have been living sideways these rivers for decades, and the law is impossible to enforce.
Dr. Khan
Dr. Khan argues lawmakers did not consider the philosophy of these communities, which revolve around tribal heads, and that jirgas – tribal councils – should have been referred to convince people to move. He also argues it’s “next to unbearable” if alternative housing and shelters aren’t funded and built for these communities. Building laws are violated in urban areas as well. Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi was recently paralysed by flooding, with officials forced to declare a public holiday to deal with the aftermath.
Deaths during the Flood
So far, about 30% of deaths from this year’s monsoon season are from houses failing, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). “Nobody follows the laws. Every street is becoming overfilled,” Dr Yasmeen Lari, an expert in climate-resilient architecture, said. Karachi is also a victim of its poor drainage system. Though the city has hundreds of them, they have either tapered or been blocked by illegal construction. The housing minister of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, says finding space to create new ones has been a challenge, and when they’ve tried to eliminate shops or buildings that cover them, their attempts have been blocked in court.
Saeed Ghani
Saeed Ghani added that a new, more punitive law was under discussion to close legal loopholes, as well as hold officers of the Sindh Building Control Authority accountable, should they approve construction that disrupts regulations. Pakistan’s geography makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change. Natural disasters amid political disturbance. If this reveals the cost of split governance, there have been efforts at the federal level to try to secure more help from the global civic.
Government
Pakistan’s struggling economy has relied on several international bailouts. Successive governments have made it a priority to pursue international provision for their climate programs. They have received backing from the World Bank and the United Nations, in loans from the International Monetary Fund over the years. A landmark moment was at the COP27 climate conference. The 2022 floods were fresh in the minds of the attendees, and the damage had affected 33 million people. Pakistan and others pushed to establish the Loss and Damage Fund to help republics hit by climate tragedies.
National Adaptation Plan
Domestically, there have been afforestation plans to restore natural overflow fences. In 2023, the government launched a “National Adaptation Plan” aiming to create a countrywide roadmap. But it remains to be seen how this will all develop in repetition, in a country which has seen so much political upheaval and variations in government. At the end of most discussions, whether with officials, climate experts, or the frontline victims of these extreme weather events, there is a certain impossibility.
Dr. Lari
“Poverty is the worst thing,” Dr Lari says. Without sufficient money, whether from the international community, the federal government, or provincial budget, it is difficult to execute the solutions they’ve all preached. A better early warning system, new homes on safer land, climate-resilient substructure – all these take funding, and any progress so far hasn’t stopped the hundreds of people killed this year.
Dr. Lari
“Everything is top-down,” Dr Lari explains. She says there has been too abundant reliance on governments, without enough results. If Pakistan does not have the income to fund these solutions, she argues, it should focus on educating the population and creating a “poverty leakage ladder” at the grassroots level. She points to her work in thousands of villages, sharing knowledge of climate-resilient homes, food security, and tree planting. In the meantime, this year’s monsoon period is not over – and neither is the sense of loss and grief. Back in the village in Swabi district, a service was taking place for those found, only a few meters from a rescue operation.
