Category: 1. Pakistan

Northern areas are reeling from devastating climate-induced flash floods that killed hundreds earlier this month, destroying homes, infrastructure and livelihoods in scenes many compared to the catastrophic 2022 deluges.

Pakistan ranks among the world’s 10 most climate-vulnerable countries, despite contributing less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts warn that such floods and other calamities are no longer “rare disasters” and are becoming routine shocks in a country ill-prepared to withstand them.

The focus, according to these experts, must now be on adaptation, not emissions cuts.

“Floods are no longer rare disasters in Pakistan. They are becoming routine shocks that people brace for every monsoon. Calling them the ‘new normal’ is not an exaggeration,” said Karachi-based ecologist Rafi-ul-Haq.

Since mid-August, torrential rains, flash floods and cloudbursts have killed more than 460 people across the country, including in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been the worst-hit, where swollen rivers, mudslides and collapsing homes have buried entire families. Nationwide, almost 800 people have died in rain-triggered floods and landslides since late June.

Haq said the intensity of rains and floods is accelerating due to climate change, global warming and melting glaciers. But human actions — unplanned urbanisation, deforestation, blocked waterways, lax governance and weak emergency responses — account for as much as 60pc of the destruction.

“Pakistan cannot stop the rain, but it can prevent much of the suffering by fixing manmade vulnerabilities,” he said. “Floods will happen, but disasters don’t have to.”

Ahmed Kamal, an Islamabad-based flood management expert, described the current flooding as a “new normal”. Shifting monsoon patterns, he said, have intensified rainfall and created new hotspots of devastation.

The Gilgit-Baltistan region, home to towering glaciers, has experienced alarming changes. Temperatures have risen steadily, accelerating glacier melt and causing glacial lake outburst floods. In May, Chilas district recorded an unprecedented 49°C (120F).

“We have our glaciers melting very fast, while winters are shrinking,” Kamal said. “Snowfall was almost 50pc below average last year.”

He also pointed out the dangers of intensifying cyclone threats in Pakistan, saying that rising sea surface temperatures in the Arabian Sea have shifted storm activity westward, with cyclones increasingly striking the coast since 2007.

At the same time, decades of deforestation — driven by demand for farmland and housing — have stripped the country of natural flood buffers. “This has multiplied the frequency and intensity of floods,” Kamal said.

Adaptation, resilience, and governance

Experts argue that Pakistan must focus on building resilience through a mix of natural and structural solutions.

“Given its economic limits, Pakistan’s priority must be adaptation and resilience rather than emissions cuts,” Haq said.

He called for restoring wetlands, mangroves and floodplains to absorb excess water, clearing illegal construction from drainage channels, and upgrading city drainage systems with green infrastructure.

He also emphasised the need for flood-resilient farming backed by insurance and social safety nets. “Low-cost steps like pre-monsoon drain cleaning, early warning systems, and community shelters can save lives immediately,” he said, while also stressing the need to address weak land-use planning and corruption.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has acknowledged that “criminal negligence” by successive governments had allowed construction on riverbeds and watersheds. At a cabinet meeting last week, he vowed to clear these encroachments.

“Along with this, larger investments in watershed management and resilient housing can follow with international climate finance,” said Kamal.

Climate governance expert Imran Saqib Khalid warned that unless Pakistan takes quick action, the future could bring food insecurity, water shortages and mass migration. “Science shows that if we continue on this trajectory, by the end of the century we’ll reach close to 2.5°C warming, which will cause havoc,” he said.

Khalid also argued that Islamabad must join forces with other low-emitting nations to demand fairer global action and finance.

Kamal concluded on an optimistic note, saying: “The challenge is enormous, but the window of opportunity is still there. With scientifically smart adaptation strategies, we could at least mitigate much of the devastation.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed the National Disaster Management Authority to expedite rescue operations in the flood-hit districts of Punjab.

The prime minister instructed the NDMA chairman to take immediate steps for the evacuation of people stranded in flood-affected areas.

He asked the authority to take protective measures and intensify monitoring, considering the flood situation at Ganda Singh Wala in the River Sutlej.

The prime minister also directed to ensure the provision of food, medicines, and tents to the affected population, besides instructing the NDMA chairman to maintain close coordination with Punjab’s disaster management authority.

Next year will be more challenging

Meanwhile, the NDMA chairman has said that due to climate change, the weather pattern in Pakistan is undergoing rapid changes.

During a briefing to the Public Accounts Committee on recent floods and torrential rains, the NDMA chief said the coming year would be even more challenging, with a projected 22% increase in rain intensity.

He stressed that residential settlements along water channels should be evacuated to prevent loss of life and property.

The NDMA chairman stated that the current monsoon spell would continue until September 10.

Responding to a question, he said that water reservoirs were being closely monitored, adding that around 150,000 people have already been shifted to safer areas.

Around 2,100 tons of relief supplies have been dispatched to flood-affected areas, he added.

The NDMA chairman stated that areas in Gilgit-Baltistan suffered widespread devastation in floods and rains.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday issued an alert for heavy rainfall in various districts of Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) during the next 12 to 24 hours.

According to the alert released by NDMA’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), there is a risk of flooding and landslides in these regions.

The disaster management authority said rainfall is expected in the districts of Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore, and Kasur. In addition, Jhelum, Chakwal, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad, Nankana Sahib, Chiniot, and Pakpattan are also likely to experience heavy rains within the next 12 to 24 hours. The rains may cause flooding in urban and low-lying areas, while water levels in local streams and nullahs may rise significantly.

Nearly 150,000 moved to safety as Sutlej swells, flood risk escalates: NDMA

Intermittent downpour is also expected across AJK in the coming 12 to 24 hours. This increases the risk of flash floods in streams and landslides in hilly areas of Neelum Valley, Bagh, Kotli, Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, and Haveli. The NDMA has warned that strong water flow in mountain streams could also disrupt traffic on connecting roads.

The NDMA had already issued an alert regarding rising water levels and potential flooding in the River Sutlej. Authorities have launched large-scale evacuation operations in areas near the Sutlej. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab, Rescue 1122, and Pakistan Army engineers are actively engaged in relief operations to manage the situation, the authority said in a handout.

Authorities have urged the public to take precautionary measures, avoid rivers, streams, and low-lying areas, and refrain from unnecessary travel.

GENEVA: More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress toward universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.

The UN’s health and children’s agencies said a full one in four people globally were without access to safely-managed drinking water last year, with over 100 million people remaining reliant on drinking surface water — for example from rivers, ponds and canals.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF said lagging water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services were leaving billions at greater risk of disease.

They said in a joint study that the world remain far off track to reach a target of achieving universal coverage of such services by 2030.

Instead, that goal “is increasingly out of reach,” they warned.

“Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges: they are basic human rights,” said the WHO’s environment chief Ruediger Krech.

“We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalized communities.”

The report looked at five levels of drinking water services.

Safely managed, the highest, is defined as drinking water accessible on the premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination.

The four levels below are basic (improved water taking less than 30 minutes to access), limited (improved, but taking longer), unimproved (for example, from an unprotected well or spring), and surface water.

Since 2015, 961 million people have gained access to safely-managed drinking water, with coverage rising from 68 percent to 74 percent, the report said.

Of the 2.1 billion people last year still lacking safely managed drinking water services, 106 million used surface water — a decrease of 61 million over the past decade.

The number of countries that have eliminated the use of surface water for drinking meanwhile increased from 142 in 2015 to 154 in 2024, the study said.

In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.

The 28 countries where more than one in four people still lacked basic services were largely concentrated in Africa.

As for sanitation, 1.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation services since 2015, with coverage rising from 48 percent to 58 percent, the study found.

These are defined as improved facilities that are not shared with other households, and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated off-site.

The number of people practicing open defecation has decreased by 429 million to 354 million 2024, or to four percent of the global population.

Since 2015, 1.6 billion people have gained access to basic hygiene services — a hand washing facility with soap and water at home — with coverage increasing from 66 percent to 80 percent, the study found.

“When children lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, their health, education, and futures are put at risk,” warned Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF’s director for WASH.

“These inequalities are especially stark for girls, who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional barriers during menstruation.

“At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach.”

A parliamentary audit has revealed that the Prime Minister Laptop Scheme Phase 2 suffered significant losses after 227 government-issued laptops remained unaccounted for. The Public Accounts Committee was told that 1,011 laptops were reported missing or stolen, of which 784 have been recovered and 227 remain missing. The Public Accounts Committee has demanded recovery within 30 days or financial accountability from those responsible.

Missing Laptops

Officials from the Higher Education Commission confirmed that records show 784 laptops recovered, but 227 devices are still untraced. The audit values the missing items at more than Rs 11.9 million. Universities have not been able to submit records of 757 laptops, and this creates loopholes in the tracing and recovery efforts. The committee emphasized poor supervision and poor record-keeping at various institutions.

HEC Response

The HEC said it revised earlier figures after reconciliation and that the number of previously flagged missing units was reduced through audits. The HEC acknowledged remaining discrepancies at several universities and pledged to tighten inventory controls and to improve verification processes. The agency committed to submit a detailed recovery plan and to share progress reports with the committee.

PAC Directive

The Public Accounts Committee directed authorities to recover all missing laptops within 30 days. The committee warned that if recovery does not succeed, the financial loss will be recovered from officials deemed responsible. The panel recommended disciplinary action in the case where negligence is discovered, and stronger checks should be carried out after future distributions.

The Prime Minister Laptop Scheme is currently in a position that needs urgent remediation in order to win the trust of the masses and, at the same time, to safeguard Government money. The HEC and member universities should submit verifiable lists and/or comply with the PAC directive in a timely manner. The committee will oversee progress and will impose accountability measures when necessary.