Monsoon is the season of heavy rainfalls and ensuing disasters caused by melting glaciers, cloudbursts, lightning, and GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood). Pakistan is among the countries highly prone to natural disasters. However, the Nature alone cannot be blamed for the disasters and damages in Pakistan, but also its weak and ill-planned infrastructure as well as lack of capacity and preparedness among institutions and communities to handle a natural disaster. Although, the climate change is considered to be the major cause of natural disasters across the globe, the rampant corruption, misuse of authority, mismanagement of resources, and low priority accorded to preparedness and response by respective governments, are a few among many factors that exacerbate the damages caused by natural disasters.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is the “eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis.” As we know Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change due to Rising global temperatures and its geographic location. Unfortunately, Global warming taking lives and making people vulnerable in Pakistan almost every year for more than a decade now. A few years ago, common people never heard of such things as cloud bursts or glacial lake outbursts, but now it’s been a common phenomenon of cloud bursts, GLOF, and heavy rainfall, and yet, it is the reason for floods again.
Pakistan is home to more than 7,253 glaciers, the highest number of glacial ice in a country other than the Polar Regions. Most of these glaciers are located in the Pakistan’s northern regions, Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP 2018), over 3,000 lakes had been formed due to melting glaciers in the Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions of Pakistan. Thirty-three of these lakes are considered at risk of flooding, posing a serious threat to over 7 million people residing downstream. GLOF is a sudden release of water from a lake fed by glacier melt that has been formed on the side, in front, within, beneath, or on the surface of a glacier. When glacial lake outbursts, it leads to catastrophic phenomena and since Pakistan has neither constructed nor the Government appears to have prioritized construction of sufficient number of dams, flooding during the monsoon season is inevitable and can cause havoc.
During monsoon season from 14 June to October 2022, 1,739 people were killed by floods in Pakistan and it caused damage worth ₨ 3.2 trillion ($14.9 billion), which resulted in a total loss of ₨ 3.3 trillion ($15.2 billion) to the national economy.
Seventy-five years of Pakistan’s flood history tells us that approximately 13,312 precious human lives have been lost so far. In Pakistan, flooding is not confined a particular area, but it affects various parts of the country, including Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, KPK and Azad Kashmir.
According to a survey, Pakistan is among the 25 countries of the world that have the lowest human development indicators. The people of Pakistan are highly dependent on agriculture as well as rain-fed water resources; that is why, if the monsoon is late or weak, the economy suffers. People can hardly grow crops for themselves, but the produce is not enough for sale. On the other hand, heavy rainfall gives them good agribusiness, but costs heavily the country’s emergency preparedness, response, and disaster management system is weak. It is heart-rending to note that more than 50 Pakistanis died of heavy monsoon rains and significant damage caused to properties, crops, and livestock barely in two weeks (June 25 to July 7). “Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since the start of the monsoon on June 25,” a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) official said, adding that 87 people were injured during the same period. This shows the dilapidated state of affairs with regard to disaster preparedness and response system of Pakistan. It is heartbreaking that ruling elite has no interest in protecting lives of Pakistanis and even now seems to have no concern whatsoever with improving the disaster management infrastructure.
Pakistan has suffered colossal life and property losses due to floods but, even after so much destruction, Pakistani authorities are still not moved to take remedial structural measures (like small dams) for reducing the risk that creates hardships for humans and risks their lives. Dams are the ultimate solution to preventing floods and provide the best water storage facilities to save water for the usage of people, agriculture, natural habitat, animals, etc.
This is a fact that Pakistan is the victim of climate change and air pollution, which is caused by neighboring countries like, India and China. Even though Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global greenhouse gases that warm our plane, but its geography makes it disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. The melting of the Hindukush, Karakoram, and Himalayan glaciers in Northern Pakistan, due to rising temperatures, creates glacial lakes that need to reduce the volume of water in the lake to reduce the peak surge discharge.
Pakistan alone with less resources cannot deal with this chaotic and alarming situation nor the economy has the capacity to take measures required to fix the problem and avoid more deprivations. Therefore, the world leaders should step up to help and build the institutional capacity of Pakistan to deal with the existing and anticipated disasters. The international community should help Pakistan devise and implement solutions to mitigate negative impacts of climate change, especially during the monsoon season, which is a ticking time bomb for Pakistan.
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