Every year, many cities in Pakistan struggle with the annual monsoon deluge, drawing criticism about poor government planning. The season runs from July through September.
A fresh spell of heavy rain continues to lash parts of Pakistan. The death toll from monsoon rains and flash flooding across the country has reached 550, including men, women, and children.
Particularly hard-hit was the southwestern Baluchistan province. It has seen uncharacteristically heavy rains during the monsoon season this year. It received 305% more rain than the annual average. Fatalities in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in eastern Punjab are also worrisome.
The past month was the wettest in three decades, with 133% more rain than the average for the past 30 years. Flash floods demolished or impaired almost thousands of homes. Some were entirely destroyed and some were damaged to some extent. Quite a lot of people remained missing. Reportedly, 107,377 cattle were dead.
The monsoon rains also damaged dams, roads, bridges, and power stations across the country. Rains severely damaged tube wells, solar panels, and other forms of communication.
Disastrous spells of monsoon rains have led to severe damage on several highways having hundreds of kilometers in length. Additionally, 1, 98,461 acres of crops were destroyed amid the natural disaster.
According to reports, the rains are almost twice as heavy as the average downpour at this time of the year. Since mid-June, the deluge has swollen rivers and damaged highways and bridges, disrupting traffic.
The Meteorological Department has forecast thunderstorms with a few heavy to very heavy falls and occasional strong winds in parts of the country with occasional gaps. Heavy falls may create waterlogging and urban flooding in low-lying areas during the forecast period.
The effects of climate change continue to exacerbate in the country as it experienced lengthy heatwaves and forest fires. Experts say climate change is the cause for the heavier than average downpour in Pakistan.
Major cities are facing flooding, prolonged electricity outages, and flash floods. In 2010, the worst floods in memory affected 20 million people in Pakistan, with damage to infrastructure running into billions of dollars and huge swaths of crops destroyed as one-fifth of the country was inundated.
Government agencies and the army have set up aid and relief camps in flood-hit regions working to help relocate families and provide food and medicine. Civil administrations in respective cities along with the Pakistani army are carrying out rescue and relief efforts in affected areas.
The authorities are shifting stranded people to safer places, providing food and water to affected people, whereas doctors and paramedics are in the field to provide medical care.
The situation is particularly dire in the major southern port city of Karachi, the country’s largest, where entire neighborhoods remain submerged. People are wading through knee-deep water on foot. Some are traveling by boat rather than in vehicles as the roads are flooded in waist-high water.
Authorities summoned paramilitary troops and the Navy to help with efforts to drain the waters from flooded streets and evacuate people. Authorities are delivering tents, food, and other essential items to hundreds of rain-affected people in the north and southwest.
Rains are essential for irrigating crops and replenishing dams and water reservoirs. Despite the warning, the governments remained indifferent. There is a need to find out why it happens.
Experts say climate change is the cause for the heavier than average downpour. A close look however at the causes that ignited forest fires and drenched millions of people in Pakistan suggests the bridges that floods washed away, roads that disappeared under water, and fires in the forests were not only because of global warming but also because of official oversight.
