essay on flood 2022 in pakistan

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The Anatomy of Pakistan’s 2022 Floods

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Features  |  environment  |  south asia.

Pakistan just experienced one of the most devastating floods in its history. Could the government have prevented some of the losses?

Homes are surrounded by floodwaters in Sohbat Pur city, a district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, August 29, 2022.

In May this year, weeks before one of history’s heaviest downpours hit Pakistan, Lt. Gen. Akhtar Nawaz, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), addressed the 7th session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bali, Indonesia. During the session, Nawaz assured the audience that Pakistan had filled the gaps in its capacities since the Kashmir Earthquake of 2005 and the devastating floods that have occurred several times since. “Pakistan had made ‘significant progress’ since then,” he said.

This progress, as per the NDMA’ chairman’s statement, included national frameworks, policies, plans, guidelines, and risk assessments, as well as well-stocked warehouses for emergencies and revised building codes specially formulated for disaster preparedness and resilience. “All these were done keeping the earlier experiences in mind,” he repeated.

Yet, when rains in June-September began to inundate villages, logistically the country was hardly prepared. It took at least two months for Pakistan to accept the scale of the destruction and loss. Even still, in the aftermath of the disaster there was hardly any emphasis on the country’s total lack of preparation.

The Timeline of Destruction

When the government issued an alert declaring this year’s floods a “national emergency,” it was already too late. Millions had been affected, more than a thousand people had already lost their lives, hundreds of bridges had collapsed and thousands of kilometers of road has been completely washed away, making it almost impossible for millions of people to receive any kind of support.

“Initially, we hardly had access to the affected villages, but we somehow managed to reach to several villages where I met many families that had lost everything,” said Hafsa Qadir Roonjah, a volunteer with the WANG organization actively working with the relief efforts. “These villages hardly had any pakka [concrete] houses before, let alone houses with any building codes, they had no electric supply and no access to information whatsoever.”

Having no early warning system, Hafsa added, “People only left their homes when the water had already entered. But they had nowhere to go and were left stranded under pouring down rain with no roof over their head.”

The NDMA published its first report on the flooding in the last week of June. By then, many had already lost their lives, hundreds of houses had been destroyed, and the collapse of several bridges had made it difficult to get to some of the most vulnerable villages across the country. And this was just the beginning of a massive wave of devastation.

Within a month, as per the NDMA , more than 300 people had lost their lives. Three in every ten deaths occurred in Balochistan, Pakistan’s poorest province, and two in every ten in Sindh. Thousands of people had lost a roof over their head amid continuous rains. Six major rivers across the country had overflown and were expected to cause even more damage.

“The most affected are the poorest population of Pakistan, They already did not have much; the floods made things worse for them and exposed the extreme poverty people have been living in,” Jalila Haidar, a lawyer and activist volunteering for the relief work, told The Diplomat.

By August , almost 3,000 kilometers of road and hundreds of bridges had been washed away. More than 40,000 houses had been affected. As of October 19 , these numbers have increased further still. More than 13,000 kilometers of roads have now been destroyed, more than 2 million houses affected, and nearly 2,000 people killed. With one-third of the country under water, water-borne diseases are now making the situation even worse.

Past Experiences with No Lessons Learned

Despite the heavy toll, there are fears that Pakistan and the world will soon forget this humanitarian crisis, like many of its kind before have been forgotten. This fear is not without basis. As per government data , since 1950 Pakistan has been no stranger to intense floods. The last 17 years have been some of the most difficult for the country when it comes to natural disasters, including the 2005 earthquake and the floods of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Almost half of the total deaths caused by floods in Pakistan since 1950 came between 2010 and 2022.

After the 2010 floods, the government of Pakistan and several international organizations conducted studies and published many reports about the country’s experience, risk, and vulnerabilities. It was then that the country established the NDMA at the federal level and a Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in each of province for early preparedness and minimizing loss.

In the following years, several policies were developed to reduce risks. One example was the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy of 2013, which focused on “advocating a management approach that focuses on reducing risks and loss.” Given the increase in the number of unpredictable extreme weather events, the country also formed a Ministry of Climate Change in 2017.

Despite the fact that Pakistan among the 10 countries at the highest risk of natural disasters, as per the World Risk Index , all the institutions, policies, plans, and strategies put in place to cope with emergencies are merely limited to paper. In a practical sense, the country has never taken disaster management as a serious matter. There is hardly any work done on improving the institutions that work on disaster management.

“There has to be political interest for any field to be taken seriously, be that disaster management or any other. Here, political interest is aligned with hard infrastructure; roads, buildings, as these are tangible and noticeable,” explained Rafiuallah Kakar, a public policy and development specialist from Balochistan, “It is easier to get votes on that basis. Secondly, these bring large commissions and kickbacks.”

Kakar continued: “For disaster management, lack of technical capacity is just one problem. Primarily political interest is just not aligned with it. There is no such demand for disaster management, and no organized media advocacy around it from civil society. Unless there is a disaster, no one even remembers to write, talk, or work on it.”

This is well evident. Reports on Pakistan’s lack of disaster preparedness – including this one – only started to pour in after the floods hit.

“A participatory approach for better disaster management is crucial,” said Pazeer Ahmed, a geologist and researcher. “Pakistan has a very diverse landscape, which requires different planning in different regions. Therefore along with investing and focusing on research and policies, disaster-resilient infrastructure is an important aspect to minimize risks for the future.”

The Climate Crisis and Justice

Where a weak management system, under-preparedness, and doing little to prevent losses has worsened the situation, Pakistan’s grievances over the climate crisis are legitimate. According to a report by the World Bank , with the ongoing climate crisis, Pakistan will likely have an increased number of extreme river and coastal floods in the next few decades.

However, the advocacy around climate justice – the argument that the developed nations contributed the most to the heat-trapping emissions and thus these richer nations should pay the developing world for climate damage – is a very new phenomenon in Pakistan. Not that it was not talked about before, but it is only after the recent floods that politicians, the media, and activists have collectively spoken out against climate injustice. As with attention to disaster preparedness, the fear is that this discourse will fade away over time.

In 2009, the developed countries set a target to provide $100 billion as climate finance annually to the developing world. As of yet, the target has gone unmet.

In a country with the world’s fifth-largest population, already struggling with spiking inflation , mounting international debt, and an unstable political situation, the damages caused by the climate crisis are a much larger challenge for Pakistan to figure out on its own. Yet the country’s recent appeals for help have not had the desired response, with the United Nations declaring as of October 12 that it had only received $90 million of the $816 million it requested to help assist Pakistan’s flood recovery efforts.

“We are responding with what we have, but it is not enough. We appeal to the world: Please speed up the response,” the U.N. said in a statement, emphasizing the urgent need for immediate action.

Though some humanitarian relief did arrive , the damage caused to the infrastructure defies a short-term fix. With damage or outright destruction to millions of houses and shops, hundreds of bridges, and thousands of kilometers of roads, as well as agricultural land, schools, and hospitals, it is very hard to predict if Pakistan will be able to rebuild its lost infrastructure in this decade.

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Pakistan case study: Coordinated and comprehensive response to the 2022 floods

Devastating floods in Pakistan affected 33 million people in 2022, with 8 million displaced, 13,000 injured and 1,700 killed – the latest in a series of increasingly frequent and severe climate-induced disasters. This case study explores how the empowered UN Resident Coordinator (RC) system was invaluable for responding to the complex crisis. Thanks to strengthened coordination capacities, including at the sub-national level the RC Office offered support to enable a swift humanitarian response, to augment the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s limited in-country resources in the immediate aftermath. The RC also enabled a focus on a collaborative approach with international financial institutions (IFIs), including for long-term recovery. The Living Indus Initiative, which emerged from the strategic prioritization for Pakistan’s UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework led by the RC, became the blueprint for a long-term approach, ensuring that UN efforts went beyond a mere response to a one-off disaster.  

Read the full case study here. 

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• One year on—the...

One year on—the persistent plight of the 2022 floods on health in Pakistan

• Related content
• Peer review
• Mohammad R Ali , PhD fellow 1 2 3 ,
• Syed W Javed , health adviser 4 ,
• Zafar Iqbal , associate medical director public health 3 5 ,
• Muhammad Sartaj , senior public health adviser 4
• 1 Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, UK
• 2 Faculty of Public Health, Special Interest Group: Disasters and Humanitarian Response
• 3 Faculty of Public Health, Special Interest Group: Pakistan
• 4 UK Health Security Agency, International Health Regulations (IHR) Strengthening Project, Pakistan
• 5 Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, St Georges Hospital, Stafford, UK

A year after the floods that devastated Pakistan, action must be taken to prepare for and mitigate the health and environmental damage caused by climate change, write Mohammad Rizwan Ali and colleagues

People in Pakistan continue to suffer one year after the disastrous flooding of July 2022. Monsoon rains unleashed significant floods that wreaked havoc on the lives of 33 million people—more than one sixth of Pakistan’s population—and over 1000 lives were lost. 1 The economic impact was estimated at $30bn, requiring $16bn for reconstruction alone. 2 These challenges are compounded by Pakistan’s severe economic downturn, characterised by high inflation, limited mechanisms to mitigate the decline in citizens’ purchasing power, and low economic resilience. 3 4 Climate related flooding has transformed land once arable for rice and wheat cultivation into floodplains, depriving many individuals of their livelihoods and exacerbating food scarcity.

Challenges in accessing clean water and food add to significant health concerns. The situation is dire for the millions of people who lack access to safe and clean water. 5 This is exacerbated by summer temperatures of up to 51°C, 6 some of the highest globally. 7 Running water is scarce. Groundwater usually extracted through tube wells is now inaccessible because of flooding, and available water is at risk of contamination. Recent estimates have shown that 10.5 million people, particularly children, are facing food insecurity. 8 The prevalence of malnutrition has necessitated immediate public health interventions and targeted education on breastfeeding and infant feeding, 9 given that 44% of children in the country have stunted growth attributed to malnutrition. 10

Comprehending the health emergency in Pakistan after the flooding required rapid implementation of robust data collection methods to assess the health situation. Efforts were made to quantify the extent of ill health in flooded areas in real time. This allowed health professions to identify outbreaks of acute diarrheal and respiratory illness, skin diseases, and malaria across different regions of the country. 11

Varying healthcare provision across regions has led to significant disparities in the incidence and prevalence of communicable diseases such as cholera and malaria, which persist a year after the floods. Such discrepancies have disproportionately affected the Sindh region, which has inadequate healthcare infrastructure, primarily because of economic deprivation. Despite the use of data systems for targeting resources, the failing health infrastructure, weak coordination mechanism, and lack of funding severely hindered an effective response to the floods.

Numerous aid agencies attempted to organise an international response shortly after the floods. But lack of coordination between them and the state sectors in Pakistan meant this was suboptimal. The probability of future serious flooding in Pakistan is high—up to 72% in 2023 12 —and recent monsoons have caused additional loss of life. 13 Funding for healthcare is insufficient. 8 Inadequate healthcare provision, particularly in rural areas and those with low incomes, exacerbates the effects of natural disasters in Pakistan. Identifying those at highest risk and increasing the resilience of local health systems are vital steps. This includes determining regions acutely at risk for further flooding by using climate disaster modelling. 14 Mitigation strategies must prioritise upstream prevention, implement effective interventions, identify healthcare provisions, and ensure the rapid delivery of aid in disasters. A more coordinated and well funded response is urgently needed to recover after the 2022 floodings and prepare for future incidents. This means establishing a resilient healthcare infrastructure that can adapt to climate change, and includes local laboratories, primary care facilities, and transportation networks.

Pakistan is among the most water stressed countries in the world, but opportunities exist to stabilise water levels in the long term. Careful planning and climate resilient agriculture practices will help Pakistan adapt to the changing climate. These practices include educating farmers in water-stressed areas to use new technologies and acquire specialised training in cultivating crops 15 16 such as rice, wheat, and maize. 17 18 This should be combined with sustainable groundwater management, using floodings to replenish low groundwater levels 15 Insights from other countries that have successfully implemented interventions will be valuable, particularly as monsoon seasons intensify. Examples include the Netherlands, which has created more capacity for rivers to accommodate floodwaters, 19 Japan, where underground tunnels and reservoirs have been constructed, 20 or the US, where “at risk” land has been purchased by the government and converted into natural floodplain areas. 21

The need to strengthen healthcare and infrastructure in Pakistan is urgent, as is an adequate response to future crises and mitigation of the worst effects of climate disasters. In 2022, some rapid and successful efforts were made to quantify health issues in flood-affected regions. But the state of ill health in Pakistan has worsened because of climate change, 10 driven by lack of trauma care resources 22 and inadequate healthcare provision, particularly for children. 23 Enhanced stakeholder coordination between the Pakistan government, aid agencies, and local and national healthcare providers and increased funding are essential for providing adequate healthcare and protecting vulnerable populations from crises driven by climate change. Concerns remain about future climate driven events, especially among those who have already experienced their consequences. With a high probability of recurrence, global communities must learn from these events and take proactive measures.

Competing interest statement: All authors declare no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years.

Provenance and peer review: not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

• ↵ World Health Organization. Major health risks unfolding amid floods in Pakistan. 2022. http://www.emro.who.int/pak/pakistan-news/major-health-risks-unfolding-amid-floods-in-pakistan.html
• ↵ World Bank. Pakistan: flood damages and economic losses over USD 30 billion and reconstruction needs over USD 16 billion—new assessment. 2022. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/10/28/pakistan-flood-damages-and-economic-losses-over-usd-30-billion-and-reconstruction-needs-over-usd-16-billion-new-assessme
• ↵ Asian Development Bank. Pakistan economic recovery rests on resuming robust reforms. 2023. https://www.adb.org/news/pakistan-economic-recovery-rests-resuming-robust-reforms-adb
• ↵ Haider K. Pakistan’s inflation outpaces Sri Lanka as Asia’s fastest. Bloomberg 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-02/pakistan-s-inflation-hits-record-with-no-sign-yet-of-imf-funds
• ↵ UNICEF. More than 10 million people, including children, living in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas still lack access to safe drinking water. 2023. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/more-10-million-people-including-children-living-pakistans-flood-affected-areas
• ↵ Jacobabad: World’s hottest city in Pakistan now under water. Al Jazeera 2022 Aug 31. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/31/furnace-to-flood-worlds-hottest-city-in-pakistan-under-water
• ↵ Coleman J. Climate change made South Asian heatwave 30 times more likely. Nature 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01444-1
• ↵ OCHA. Pakistan: 2022 monsoon floods—situation report no. 17. Pakistan. 2023. https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-2022-monsoon-floods-situation-report-no-17-12-june-2023
• ↵ Abidi SMA. The urgent need to address child malnutrition in rural areas of Pakistan: lessons from the 2022 floods. J Pediatr Health Care 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089152452300127X
• Malik MHBA ,
• Ur Rehman ME
• ↵ The Nation. NDMA predicts more devastating floods this year. The Nation 2023. https://www.nation.com.pk/12-Apr-2023/ndma-predicts-more-devastating-floods-this-year
• ↵ France-Presse A. At least 50 dead in Pakistan monsoon floods since end of June. Guardian 2023 Jul 7. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/07/pakistan-monsoon-floods-punjab-province-deaths
• ↵ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Climate-Smart” agriculture: policies, practices and financing for food security, adaptation and mitigation. 2010. https://www.fao.org/3/i1881e/i1881e00.htm
• Emerick K ,
• ↵ Lakhani N. The race against time to breed a wheat to survive the climate crisis. Guardian 2022 Jun 12. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/12/wheat-breeding-climate-crisis-drought-resistant
• van Herk S ,
• Zevenbergen C ,
• Masuhara K ,
• Mochida S ,
• Yamamoto T ,
• Curran-Groome W ,
• BenDor TK ,
• ↵ World Food Programme. WFP Pakistan floods situation report. 2023. https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/wfp-pakistan-floods-situation-report-17-july-2023

Pakistan 2022 Floods Response Plan

02 September 2022

The “2022 Pakistan Floods Response Plan (FRP)” was jointly launched by Government of Pakistan and the United Nations, simultaneously in Islamabad and Geneva.

Pakistan has been enduring severe monsoon weather since June 2022, which saw areaweighted rainfall 67 per cent above normal levels in that month alone. As of 27 August, rainfall in the country is equivalent to 2.9 times the national 30-year average. This has caused widespread flooding and landslides, with severe repercussions for human lives, property and infrastructure. To date, 72 districts across Pakistan have been declared ‘calamity hit’ by the Government of Pakistan. These numbers remain dynamic given the ongoing rains, and the number of calamity-declared districts is expected to increase.

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Responding to Pakistan floods

Subscribe to the sustainable development bulletin, ijaz nabi in ijaz nabi executive director - consortium for development policy research, pakistan country director, international growth center, non-resident fellow - center for global development.

February 10, 2023

The floods of August 2022 could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan caught up in deep macroeconomic and political turmoil. A ballooning trade deficit, impending debt service obligations, and fast-depleting reserves had put a lot of pressure on the exchange rate, which had depreciated 24 percent in 21-22. Inflation was at an all-time high (27 percent year on year). Already in an IMF program (the fifth since 2000) with stringent fiscal targets, there was little room to fund large unanticipated expenditure. Nearly $31 billion concessionary capital, which would help create the fiscal space needed to respond to any exogenous shock, was tied up with the continuation of the IMF program. To make things worse, the coalition government that had ousted the previous government in a vote of confidence resisted tough conditionality and the program was on hold. A general election was around the corner and removing the monstrous energy subsidy carried a huge political cost.   

The deluge  

Pakistan receives 70 percent of its rain in the monsoon months of July and August. Low pressure over the Tibetan plateau attracts water-laden winds from the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal. The winds travel westward along the Himalayas and shed water mainly in Pakistan’s upper Punjab. The water flows back to the Arabian sea via storm drains and the Indus River system. A good proportion of this water is diverted to the world’s most extensive canal irrigation system, and some of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plants, vital for farming, drinking, and energy needs of the country. Pakistan’s stellar reduction in poverty, now in the single digits, is largely due to the harnessing of this hydraulic system.  

In the summer of 2022, as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres put it, “the monsoon was on steroids”: Pakistan received 190 percent of its normal rainfall in July and August.  Importantly, Baluchistan in the western part of the country, normally unaffected by the summer monsoon, and Sindh in the south, received 450 percent more rain than normal. With flood basins saturated with water, the natural drainage system was overwhelmed and a vast area of rich farmland and human settlements was flooded.  

The consequences were disastrous. The floods submerged one-third of the country in water, 15,000 people were dead or injured and 8 million were displaced. Over 2 million homes, 13,000 kilometers of highways, 439 bridges, and more than 4 million acres of agricultural land were destroyed or damaged. An estimated  9 million more people could be forced into poverty  as a direct consequence of these floods. The losses amount to 2.2 percent of GDP; the agriculture sector accounts for the largest decline at 0.9 percent. The recovery and reconstruction needs are projected at 1.6 times the budgeted national development expenditure for the financial year 2023.   

The immediate response was to provide relief to the suffering. $245 million, raised from the government’s own resources and contributions by private citizens and international donors, was provided in cash support to 2.2 million households and hundreds of thousands of tents, food, water, and medicines were distributed to the displaced. The fund for emergency relief was revised up to $816 million after additional international commitments.   

The key, of course, was the massive post-floods reconstruction to avoid longer-term adverse impacts on economic growth and on the livelihood of low-income households.  Working with the United Nations system, the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Union, a  Post-Disaster Needs Assessment  (PDNA) was prepared, which estimates flood damages to exceed $14.9 billion, economic losses over $15.2 billion and reconstruction needs over $16.3 billion . The core priorities of this Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework   (4RF) are the revival of livelihoods and agriculture , the rebuilding of private housing, and the reconstruction of public infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals.

Metrologists contend that Pakistan’s floods were caused by climate change-induced increase in temperatures for which the rich countries bore responsibility. COP27 discussions at Sharm al-sheik in November 2022, influenced by Pakistan floods, helped towards the consensus that rich countries must compensate the vulnerable poor countries for the suffering from climate change disasters. This resulted in setting up the “loss and damage” fund.   

The urgency to respond to Pakistan’s needs, without waiting for the laborious “transition committee” to operationalize the damage and loss fund, led to the International Conference on Climate Resistant Pakistan hosted by the U.N. in Geneva in January. It resulted in a pledge of $10.57 billion by multilateral and bilateral creditors for reconstruction—more than the $8.15 billion Pakistan was expecting. The PDNA target was $16.3 billion, 50 percent from own resources . The breakdown of the pledge is: Islamic Development Bank Group $4.2 billion, World Bank $2 billion (revised up to $2.7 billion), Asian Development Bank $1.5 billion, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank $1 billion, Saudi Arabia $1 billion, France $345 million, China $100 million, US $100 million, EU $93 million, Germany $88 million, and Japan $77 million.   

Accessing the funds   

Accessing concessionary climate funds, before the floods, had been a sobering experience . Accounting for just 0.6 percent of global CO2 emissions in 2018, an important greenhouse gas (GHG), Pakistan ranked 27th among the world’s top CO2 emitters (largely because of polluting technology and large population size) .  Without new initiatives annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are projected to more than triple by 2030. In the government’s view, any 50 percent reduction below baseline projected emissions should be financed 15 percent from domestic and 35 percent from international sources.  However, the volume of global concessionary finance is modest. Of the total CF of $632 billion following the Paris Agreement in 2019-20, $65 billion was concessionary finance by multinationals to East Asian economies and only $20 billion was grants to the poorest countries. Pakistan found concessionary finance criteria to be exceptionally stringent despite several debt swap opportunities (switching to clean energy, massive reforestation program, upgrading harvesting technology to reduce crop residue burning). Ukraine war further clouded prospects for securing such funds.   

Accessing funds following the Geneva pledge in response to the floods will have its own challenges. Pakistan’s finance minister revealed that almost 90 percent of pledges made by the international community at the donors’ conference in Geneva for flood-hit Pakistan were project loans that will be rolled out over the next three years. How soon Pakistan gets the money will depend on how quickly mutually agreed projects can be designed and counterpart funds made available.   

A preliminary analysis of the World Bank pledge shows that $650 million is re-purposed from previous commitments, $1.3 billion from the overall IDA commitment (part of $3.9 billion, 7 percent of total IDA Performance Based Allocation to Pakistan), and $700 million is additional money from the crisis response window. Similarly, Islamic Development Bank’s $4.2 billion is largely ($3.6 billion) normal trade finance. ADB financing structure is a similar mix of re-purposing and upfronting previously committed allocation and some fresh money.  

Pakistan’s complex macroeconomic situation will pose tough challenges for rolling out the Geneva pledge. Central to the ongoing IMF program is a tight fiscal stance requiring the removal of unfunded and poorly targeted subsidies. Reconstruction will need additional fiscal space. To remain consistent with program design, the reconstruction expenditure has to be monitored closely to make sure that the fiscal space is not misappropriated. Recently approved World Bank IDA credits to respond to the floods in Sind and Baluchistan (part of the Bank’s Geneva pledge) is an opportunity to include expenditure tracking instruments to ensure that subsidy reform supported by the IMF program continues even as the government responds to the disastrous impact of the floods on low-income rural households.   

Six months after the deluge, an estimated 4.5 million people remain exposed to or living close to flooded areas; about 2.5 million people do not have access to potable water; an estimated 1.1 million people are at risk of sliding from acute food and livelihood crisis (IPC3) situations to humanitarian emergency (IPC4) food security situations due to insufficient support; Malaria outbreaks have been reported in at least 12 districts of Sindh and Balochistan; over 7 million children and women need immediate access to nutrition services; an estimated 3.5 million children, especially girls, are at high risk of permanent school dropout; the Pakistan Floods Response Plan is only 36 percent funded more than halfway through its 9-month duration;  much of the infrastructure destroyed by the floods remains to be re-built.

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Pakistan floods: A health crisis of epic proportions

With 33 million people affected by the flooding, there are increased risks of waterborne diseases and disrupted access to healthcare.

Thirty-three million people have been affected by the recent floods in Pakistan. The disaster has left more than 1,300 people – including more than 400 children – dead, displaced millions and put one-third of the country under water.

The floods were brought on by a severe heatwave which caused glaciers in the mountains to melt and heavier-than-normal monsoon rains.

Keep reading

‘never seen climate carnage’ like pakistan floods, says un chief, will pakistan’s deadly floods leave economic recovery sinking, how pakistanis banded together to help flood victims, how is extreme weather changing pakistan.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the flooding as a “monsoon on steroids” and a “climate catastrophe”. South Asia is one of the world’s climate crisis “hotspots” where people are 15 times more likely to die from climate effects, he warned. Although Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent to global carbon emissions, its share of the catastrophic effects of climate change is colossal.

As initial floodwaters ravaged towns and villages, drowning posed an immediate danger, and many people lost their lives this way. But as water continues to destroy crops and the roads along which food is transported, malnutrition becomes a very real threat. As is the case with many natural disasters, the most vulnerable will be the worst affected.

As well as being a humanitarian disaster, the floods also threaten the very fragile health infrastructure that was in place in Pakistan, bringing with them a new set of worrying health challenges.

Even before the current floods, there was a significant disparity in access to health services between rural and urban areas. Accessing these rural areas has been difficult. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that more than 1,400 health facilities had been fully or partially damaged and that access to “health facilities, healthcare workers, and essential medicines and medical supplies” remained the main healthcare challenge.

Waterborne diseases

Another key concern is the likely rise in waterborne diseases. People who have fled the devastation are living in makeshift camps with little or no access to clean water. According to charity Wateraid, half of all water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in some of the hardest-hit areas of Pakistan have suffered substantial damage, and there are already reports of thousands of people suffering from dysentery.

This highly infectious disease is an intestinal infection that causes severe diarrhoea with blood, fevers, abdominal cramps and life-threatening dehydration. The bacteria and parasites that cause dysentery, shigella E coli and amebiasis thrive in poorly sanitised water. Children and the elderly will be at most at risk of the complications that accompany dehydration.

The spread of cholera is also a concern according to the WHO and the UN . Cholera is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. It is spread through contaminated water supplies. If not managed properly, it can cause hypovolemic shock due to loss of fluid, kidney failure, and death. People who contract cholera can shed the bacteria in their stools for up to 10 days, adding to the risk of it spreading.

Before the floods, Pakistan was experiencing a rise in cholera cases , particularly across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan regions, and oral cholera vaccines and surveillance programmes were being set up, but many of these will have been pushed back as the floods hit.

As flood waters become stagnant, we are also going to see a rise in mosquito populations, which will use the waters as a breeding ground. Mosquitos bring with them vector-borne diseases, the most worrying being malaria and dengue fever.

With malaria, mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasite which is released into the bloodstream when an affected mosquito bites a human. The parasite travels to the liver where it grows; once fully formed it leaves the liver and enters red blood cells and begins to multiply. When the numbers inside of a red blood cell reach critical levels, they bust open, destroying the cell and the cycle begins again with the new parasites. Symptoms typically include fever, sweats, anaemia, and vomiting. There is a risk of coma and death if not treated with appropriate medication.

Dengue fever is transmitted via the bite of a mosquito harbouring the dengue virus. Symptoms include high fever, headaches, rashes, swollen glands as well as vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. A small percentage of people who have dengue fever can develop a more serious form of the disease known as dengue haemorrhagic fever. This can cause severe bleeding and death.

Skin diseases caused by people living in wet conditions are already being widely reported. Dermatological fungal infections grow best on wet or damp skin. As people make their way through floods, they expose large parts of their skin to the microbes that live within the water. Unable to wash clean afterwards, these bacteria and fungi thrive in skin folds under breasts, in the groin area and between toes causing intense itching, pain and skin breakdown, which in turn increases the risk of further infections.

Disrupted care

There is also a concern that the floods will cause disruption to much-needed immunisation programmes that were being rolled out across Pakistan.

Before the floods, Pakistan had reported more than 4,500 cases of measles and 15 cases of wild poliovirus in 2022, according to the WHO. Children will now be put at increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases as much of the infrastructure needed to access and provide these life-saving vaccines was washed away.

Additionally, children face an education crisis as the floods have also fully or partially destroyed nearly 19,000 schools. This lack of education coupled with the trauma of living through a natural disaster of such magnitude is going to have far-reaching consequences for the children affected.

Among the millions of severely affected people are at least 650,000 pregnant women and girls, 73,000 of whom are expected to deliver in the next month. The United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA ) says many of these women lack access to the healthcare facilities and support they need to deliver their children safely. With healthcare facilities and homes destroyed, many simply do not know where or how they will give birth.

Even before the floods, Pakistan had high maternal mortality rates – a result of lack of access to healthcare facilities and education, malnutrition, poverty and a high prevalence of violence against women. This was most pronounced in rural areas – the very areas that have been worst affected by the flooding. And it is not only pregnant women and girls who will be affected, but also those seeking access to contraception and other reproductive health services.

In addition to this, menstruating women are unlikely to have access to sanitary products and risk serious infection by using pieces of cloth to soak up menstrual blood and then washing it in contaminated water supplies, only to reuse it again.

Any relief effort must recognise that women and girls are disproportionally impacted by any natural disaster and must plan for female-specific support.

There has been criticism over the sluggish response to aid provision, particularly as the disaster has come at a time when many in the West are grappling with rising food and energy bills of their own. But turning our backs on those living through climate catastrophes largely caused by other countries is a mistake.

The global plan must recognise the immediate crisis facing the people of Pakistan but also the steps needed to tackle the wider issue of climate change because if nothing is done, it will inevitably affect us all.

Essay on 2022 Flood in Pakistan

• December 4, 2023

Kainat Shakeel

Floods in Pakistan have been a continual and devastating natural disaster, impacting millions of people and causing widespread destruction. The country’s vulnerability to floods is impacted by its geographic position and the downpour season. The flood in 2022, had a significant impact on the country, leading to the destruction of homes, the loss of lives, and damage to the crops and agriculture structure of that area impacting other areas as well.

Causes of Floods in Pakistan:

Pakistan’s vulnerability to floods can be attributed to various factors, including its geographic position and the monsoon season. The Indian thunderstorm, characterized by heavy downfall, plays a significant part in causing floods in the region. Also, climate change has been linked as a contributing factor, with studies suggesting that global warming has boosted the monsoon rains, leading to further frequent and severe floods. 

Consequences of Floods:

There are far-reaching consequences of floods in Pakistan affecting both rural and metropolitan areas. The people are affected by the loss of their loved ones’ lives, and the destruction of their homes and crops, and their daily life routines are disturbed due to flood and they don’t know what could be happened to them. The floods also affect the country’s agricultural sector, leading to the loss of crops and livestock, which in turn affects food security and the livelihoods of the people. 

Response and Ongoing Challenges:

The government of Pakistan, along with chromatic international associations, has been involved in relief exertions and post-disaster requirements assessment to address the far-reaching damage caused by the floods. Still, the response has been hampered by ongoing challenges, including the country’s social vulnerability, high poverty rates, and climate change’s impact. The recreating nature of floods in Pakistan underscores the critical need for climate action and effective disaster operation strategies to alleviate the impact of similar disasters on the country and its people. 

2022 Flood in Pakistan:

The 2022 floods in Pakistan have had resonating impacts, with roughly 1 in 7 Pakistanis being affected by the disaster. The millions who survived the floods were forced to flee their homes with minimum things, worsening an earlier dire situation. In response to the extremity, the international community has been involved in furnishing aid and support to the affected population. Also, the Indus River System Authority was compelled to authorize further evacuations to grease the release of water from heads, as the inrushes hovered to exceed the capacity of several budgets, posing a threat of disastrous breaches and fresh flooding, losses, and destruction.   

The road to recovery for Pakistan in the aftereffect of the floods is long and laborious. The expansive damage to structures, homes, and farming land will bear sustained efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate the affected areas. The relegation of a large number of people has also created a significant philanthropic challenge, with the need to give sanctum, food, and medical backing to the displaced population. The floods have underlined the significance of effective disaster operation and the need for long-term strategies to address the impact of similar recreating disasters on the country and its people. 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, floods in Pakistan are intermittent and ruinous natural disasters that have a significant impact on the country and its people. The causes of floods are multifaceted, including geographic, meteorological, and mortal factors. The consequences of floods are far-reaching, affecting lives, homes, structures, and the agricultural sector. The response to floods is ongoing, with the government and transnational associations working to address the expansive damage caused by the disaster. Still, the recreating nature of cataracts in Pakistan highlights the need for climate action and effective disaster operation strategies to alleviate the impact of similar disasters on the country and its people. 

Kainat Shakeel is a versatile SEO-Content Writer and Digital Marketer with a keen understanding of tech news, digital market trends, fashion, technology, laws, and regulations. As a storyteller in the digital realm, she weaves narratives that bridge the gap between technology and human experiences. With a passion for staying at the forefront of industry trends, her blog is a curated space where the worlds of fashion, tech, and legal landscapes converge.

Quantifying the poverty impact of the 2022 floods in Pakistan

Erwin knippenberg, mattia amadio, nadeem javaid, moritz meyer.

Exacerbated by climate change, the 2022 Monsoon Floods in Pakistan severely affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, especially in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces. The floods particularly impacted the poorest and most vulnerable, who are disproportionately more likely to live in flood-affected areas. Pakistan’s Post Disaster Needs Assessment estimates suggest that the floods may have led as many as 9.1 million people--or four percentage points--into poverty. This work was featured by the government of Pakistan as part of its advocacy for ‘loss and damages’ at COP 27.

How then were those estimates constructed?

Measuring poverty in real-time

Quantifying the poverty impact informs the humanitarian response and the allocation of resources during the recovery.   It also highlights the relevance of sub-national patterns because natural disasters are often geographically concentrated and disproportionally affect specific segments of the population—notably farmers in rural areas.

In an emergency, the limited availability of real-time data on the ground poses a particular constraint requiring innovative approaches. The availability of satellite data overlaid with household survey data allows for rapid estimates of the extent and severity of the flooding.  This combination of data allowed us to calculate how the damage impacted people and, from there, derive an estimate of the increase in poverty. These estimates were later validated using data collected by the government in flood-affected districts.

Leveraging geospatial data

Within days, multiple space agencies published satellite data of the fluvial flooding. These high-resolution images showed the geographic extent of the flooding, highlighting large parts of the country along the southern Indus River, which were underwater (figure 1).

Figure 1: Flood Extent

This remotely sensed maximum flood extent closely resembles the probabilistic scenarios representing events with a frequency of 1 in 100 and 1 in 1,000 years floods, presented in the recent Pakistan Climate Change and Development Report (CCDR). We combined this flood layer together with other geospatial information, such as population distribution and indicators of economic activity, to calculate their exposure to floods. The spatial modeling of the population comes from the 2019 World Settlement Footprint .

Integrating household data

The impact of floods on household welfare is measured by various factors.  These factors include the location of the household, the percentage of homes, land, and livestock exposed to floods within that district, and household characteristics that help determine the likelihood of being impacted by floodwater. The satellite data on flood exposure were combined with data from the 2018-2019 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the source used to calculate official poverty figures. The resulting combined data confirmed that the calamity-affected districts were poorer than the national average, with an average poverty rate of 31.4 percent compared to 21.9 percent nationally.

Merging the dataset allowed the estimations to consider household characteristics when assessing the damages. Households who worked in agriculture would be exposed to losses to their livelihoods since arable land was underwater. Households who lived in mudbrick homes would be more likely to see them washed away by the floods. Households with livestock would risk losing their animals and, therefore, an essential source of income.  These risks were factored into a model that ‘shocked’ affected households, reducing their consumption based on a damage function. We iterated 500 times to reduce the potential bias from assigning damages to households based on probabilities.

Finally, to factor in the effect of disruptions to the supply chain, the model factored in how price increases could have affected food consumption. This was done using the monthly Consumer Price Index reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Losses to household welfare were proportional to the total consumption dedicated to food.

Validating with Government reports

This model was validated against reports from the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). Official estimates of the population, buildings, land, and livestock exposed were substituted for the geospatial estimates to rerun the model.

The results were closely aligned (figure 2). Effects on poverty are spatially concentrated in calamity-hit provinces; affected households had overlapping characteristics, making them vulnerable to losses through various channels. The exception is Balochistan, where the government reports a larger share of the population being affected by flooding compared to what is suggested by the geospatial data. An explanation for this could be that satellite images could capture standing water but could not detect quick pluvial cumulation and flash floods that likely caused large damages in this region.

Figure 2: Estimated increase in the national poverty rate – comparing geospatial analytics and NDMA estimates

NDMA results were used to construct the official estimates of the impact on poverty, which were between 3.7 and 4 percentage points, or about 9 million people. The depth of poverty (distance to the poverty line) increased as well, with an estimated 7 million additional people living more than 20 percent below the poverty line. These are short-term estimates, and the recovery will depend on the quality of relief and reconstruction efforts. Even in the best case, reversing these adverse shocks to household welfare will take considerable time.

Data-intense assessments will be needed even more in the future

Climate change projections suggest that natural disasters such as floods may become increasingly severe and frequent in the following decades.   Projections from the CCDR suggest that due to these cumulative shocks, hard-won gains in terms of poverty reduction may stall or be reversed.   

Through this work, it has become clear that it is essential to continue strengthening our capacity to align poverty estimates based on geospatial, administrative and survey data.  It also highlights the importance of regularly collected household survey data both before and after the shock. This can help policymakers identify potential risks that households and communities face as the climate evolves.  It can also provide insights on how to help them adapt and be more resilient. And when a shock occurs, such analysis can help assess the damage quickly and deploy support more effectively.

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Floods in Pakistan Essay: Causes and Prevention

by Pakiology | Aug 19, 2024 | Essay , English | 0 comments

Get a comprehensive understanding of the devastating effects of floods in Pakistan through this in-depth Floods In Pakistan Essay. Learn about the causes, prevention, and role of government in addressing this issue.

Here are two perfect essays on floods in Pakistan. It is a hot topic right now. It is very possible that your examiner will target this topic for your upcoming exam. So prepare these essays very well.

Page Contents

800 Words Essay on Floods In Pakistan With Quotations

Impacts of floods in pakistan, mitigating the adverse effects of floods in pakistan, 400 words essay on floods in pakistan.

Pakistan experiences devastating floods every year, causing loss of life and property. Despite being a common disaster in the country, the impact of floods remains devastating. In this article, we delve into the causes and impacts of floods in Pakistan and explore ways to mitigate their adverse effects.

What Causes Floods in Pakistan?

Monsoon rainfall:.

Pakistan’s location in the monsoon region makes it susceptible to heavy rainfall during the monsoon season, which can cause widespread flooding. This is because heavy downpours in a short period of time can overwhelm the drainage systems, causing water to overflow into low-lying areas and causing widespread damage. Additionally, the country’s topography, with its mountain ranges, valleys, and plains, also exacerbates the problem by channeling the water into narrow channels and causing flash floods.

Glacial Melt:

The Himalayan glaciers, located in northern Pakistan, are melting at an alarming rate, which contributes to the country’s flood problem. The melting of these glaciers increases the volume of water in rivers and streams, causing them to overflow their banks and result in widespread flooding. The problem is further exacerbated by the rapid rate at which the glaciers are melting, which results in a large amount of water being released into rivers and streams all at once, leading to a sudden increase in the water levels and causing flash floods.

Poor Drainage System:

The inadequate drainage system in Pakistan is a major cause of floods. The poor design of the drainage channels and the rampant illegal construction in the country can result in blockages and obstructions, which can cause water to back up and overflow into surrounding areas, resulting in widespread flooding. Additionally, the illegal construction of buildings and infrastructure in flood-prone areas can also exacerbate the problem by blocking the flow of water and causing water to accumulate in low-lying areas.

Deforestation:

The rapid deforestation in Pakistan is also contributing to the frequency and intensity of floods in the country. Trees play a crucial role in retaining water and reducing runoff, and their loss can lead to increased runoff and flooding. Deforestation also reduces the amount of vegetation that can absorb water, leading to a more rapid runoff of water into rivers and streams and causing them to overflow their banks and result in widespread flooding.

Loss of Life and Property:

Floods in Pakistan have a devastating impact on human lives, often resulting in the loss of lives and widespread damage to property and infrastructure, especially in rural areas where residents have limited access to resources and support. The destruction of homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals can have long-lasting effects on communities, displacing families and causing widespread poverty and homelessness.

Health Crises:

Floods in Pakistan can pose a serious threat to public health, spreading waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and malaria. With contaminated water sources, the risk of water-borne illnesses increases, putting the lives of millions of people at risk, especially in areas where there are limited healthcare facilities.

Agricultural Disruption:

The agricultural sector, which is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, is often severely impacted by floods, damaging crops and reducing soil fertility. This can have a significant impact on food security, leading to food shortages and increased prices, affecting the livelihoods of millions of farmers and their families.

Economic Losses:

In addition to the loss of human lives, floods in Pakistan can result in massive economic losses, particularly for small businesses and farmers. The destruction of infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and transportation systems, can disrupt trade and commerce, causing significant financial losses for businesses.

Improved Drainage System:

To prevent blockages and reduce the risk of floods, the drainage system in Pakistan must be improved. This can include upgrading existing channels, constructing new ones, and ensuring proper maintenance to prevent blockages.

Afforestation:

The government should launch a massive afforestation drive to restore tree cover, which can help to reduce runoff and prevent floods. By planting trees, the government can mitigate the effects of floods and provide a long-term solution to protect communities from the adverse impacts of floods.

Strict Construction Regulations:

To prevent illegal construction and blockages, strict construction regulations must be enforced. This can include implementing fines and penalties for violators and providing support to local authorities to enforce these regulations.

Flood Early Warning System:

To ensure timely evacuation and advance warning, an effective flood early warning system should be in place. This can include installing early warning systems, such as flood gauges and weather monitoring systems, to provide real-time information to communities, allowing them to evacuate and prepare in advance.

In conclusion, floods are a recurring problem in Pakistan, causing widespread damage to life and property. By addressing the root causes and implementing measures to enhance the country’s preparedness and response mechanisms, we can reduce the frequency and intensity of floods in Pakistan and ensure a safer and more sustainable future for all

Floods in Pakistan have been a major natural disaster for the country. They are caused by heavy rainfall during the monsoon season, as well as by melting snow from the Himalayas. These floods can cause widespread destruction, including damage to homes, infrastructure, and crops.

The 2022 floods in Pakistan were particularly severe, affecting more than 33 million people and causing billions of dollars in damage. The floods affected large areas of the country, including the Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The heavy rainfall and overflowing rivers caused widespread destruction, including damage to homes, roads, and crops.

The impact of floods on Pakistan can be devastating. In addition to the physical damage caused by floods, they can also have a significant economic impact. Floods can destroy crops and damage infrastructure, leading to a loss of income for farmers and businesses. They can also disrupt transportation and communication networks, making it difficult for people to access essential goods and services.

The government of Pakistan has taken steps to try to prevent and mitigate the effects of floods. This includes building dams and other infrastructure to control the flow of water, as well as providing support to affected communities. However, much more needs to be done to address the issue of floods in Pakistan.

As I mentioned earlier, the government of Pakistan has taken steps to try to prevent and mitigate the effects of floods. This includes building dams and other infrastructure to control the flow of water, as well as providing support to affected communities.

However, there are also other measures that can be taken to reduce the impact of floods in Pakistan. For example, improving drainage systems and increasing vegetation in flood-prone areas can help to absorb excess water and reduce the risk of flooding. In addition, educating communities about the risks of floods and how to prepare for them can help to reduce the loss of life and property.

It is also important for the government to work with international organizations and other countries to develop more effective strategies for dealing with floods. This could include sharing information and expertise, as well as providing financial and technical assistance. By working together, it may be possible to reduce the impact of floods in Pakistan and protect communities from the devastating effects of this natural disaster.

In conclusion, floods in Pakistan are a major natural disaster that can have devastating effects on the country. They are caused by heavy rainfall and melting snow and can cause significant damage to homes, infrastructure, and crops. The government of Pakistan has taken steps to try to prevent and mitigate the effects of floods, but more needs to be done to address this issue.

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Pakistan: Flood Damages and Economic Losses Over USD 30 billion and Reconstruction Needs Over USD 16 billion

Post-Disaster Needs Assessment calls for urgent support to implement a Recovery and Reconstruction that ‘Builds Back Better’

October 27, 2022

Tent city in Malir, Karachi for flood affected communities.

ISLAMABAD, October 28, 2022  - A damage, loss, and needs assessment following the unprecedented floods in Pakistan calls for ‘ building back better ’, based on the principles of the poor first, transparency, inclusion, and climate resilience . The assessment estimates total damages to exceed USD 14.9 billion, and total economic losses to reach about USD 15.2 billion. Estimated needs for rehabilitation and reconstruction are at least USD 16.3 billion , not including much needed new investments to strengthen Pakistan’s adaptation to climate change and overall resilience to future climate shocks, or reconstruction needs of affected private entities.

Housing; Agriculture and Livestock ; and Transport and Communications sectors suffered the most significant damage, at USD 5.6 billion, USD 3.7 billion, and USD 3.3 billion, respectively. Sindh is the worst affected province with close to 70 percent of total damages and losses, followed by Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives led the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) , which was conducted jointly with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Union (EU), the United Nations agencies with technical facilitation by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank.

The PDNA, in addition to estimating damages, economic losses and recovery and reconstruction needs, also assesses broader macro-economic and human impacts and recommends principles along which to develop a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction framework.

The floods affected 33 million people and more than 1730 lost their lives . They are particularly impacting the poorest and most vulnerable districts. The situation is still evolving, with flood waters stagnant in many areas, causing water-borne and vector-borne diseases to spread, and more than 8 million displaced people now facing a health crisis .

The crisis thus risks having profound and lasting impacts on lives and livelihoods. Loss of household incomes, assets, rising food prices, and disease outbreaks are impacting the most vulnerable groups. Women have suffered notable losses of their livelihoods, particularly those associated with agriculture and livestock.

The PDNA Human Impact Assessment highlights that the national poverty rate may increase by 3.7 to 4.0 percentage points, potentially pushing between 8.4 and 9.1 million more people below the poverty line .

Multidimensional poverty can potentially increase by 5.9 percentage points, implying that an additional 1.9 million households are at risk of being pushed into non-monetary poverty.

Compounding the existing economic difficulties facing the country, the 2022 floods are expected to have a significant adverse impact on output, which will vary substantially by region and sector. Loss in gross domestic product (GDP) as a direct impact of the floods is projected to be around 2.2 percent of FY22 GDP . The agriculture sector is projected to contract the most, at 0.9 percent of GDP. The damage and losses in agriculture will have spillover effects on the industry, external trade and services sectors.

The Government is providing immediate relief to the impacted communities and supporting the early recovery, while aiming to ensure macroeconomic stability and fiscal sustainability. Moving forward, as recovery and reconstruction spending rises, the loss in output could be mitigated. Yet, significant international support will be needed to complement Pakistan’s own commitment to increase domestic revenue mobilization and save scarce public resources, and to reduce the risk of exacerbating macroeconomic imbalances.

Although the early loss and damage estimates may increase as the situation is continuously evolving on the ground, the PDNA lays the groundwork for an agenda for recovery and reconstruction that is designed to build back a better future for the most affected people in Pakistan . While the recovery will require massive efforts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, buildings and livelihoods, it will also be an opportunity to strengthen institutions and governance structures.

The report puts forth recommendations for developing a comprehensive recovery framework. While the primary focus will be on the affected areas, such framework presents an opportunity to embed systemic resilience to natural hazards and climate change in Pakistan’s overall development planning.

This tragic disaster can be a turning point, where climate resilience and adaptation, increased domestic revenue mobilization and better public spending, and public policies and investments better targeted to the most vulnerable populations; all figure at the core of policy making going forward.

In the short term, targeted mechanisms such as social assistance and emergency cash transfers, provision of emergency health services, and programs to restore shelter and restart local economic activities, particularly in agriculture, should be prioritized. Reconstruction and rehabilitation should rest on key principles of : participatory, transparent, inclusive, and green recovery for long-term resilience—“ building back better ”; pro-poor, pro-vulnerable, and gender sensitive, targeting the most affected; strong coordination of government tiers and implementation by the lowest appropriate level; synergies between humanitarian effort and recovery; and a sustainable financing plan.

Given Pakistan’s limited fiscal resources, significant international support and private investment will be essential for a comprehensive and resilient recovery . The Pakistani authorities are committed to accelerate reforms to generate additional domestic fiscal resources and improve efficiency and targeting of public spending. Beyond the immediate needs of floods reconstruction, these reforms, while protecting the most vulnerable, will be important to generate fiscal space to invest more broadly into more climate-resilient infrastructure and adaptation to climate change, as well as to build buffers to face future shocks, while addressing macroeconomic imbalances. This commitment of the Government will also be key to mobilize further international support as well as to unlock private sector sources of financing—both of which will be absolutely critical to face the current climate change-induced shock.

The ADB, the EU, the UNDP and the World Bank are fully committed to working with the Government and people of Pakistan during the ensuing recovery phase, and to increase the country’s climate resilience.

For additional information, please contact:

ADB:  Ismail Khan at [email protected] EU: [email protected]   UNDP: Tabindah Anwar at [email protected] or +92 (51) 835 5650 World Bank: Mariam Altaf at [email protected] or +92 (51) 9090000

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Essay on Floods in Pakistan for Matric, FA, FSC, BA and BSC

Essay on floods in pakistan for the students of matric, fa, fsc, 2nd year, intermediate, ba and bsc.

Here is an essay on Floods in Pakistan for students of Class 10, Class 12 and graduation. Pakistan is a developing country and floods in it are not unusual. This essay will discuss the reason of floods in Pakistan. You can write the same essay under the title Floods in Pakistan essay, Essay on Flood, an essay on flood, an essay on flood disaster.

Floods in Pakistan Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation

The recent floods in Pakistan were a calamity. They visit our country quite frequently. We live in the modern age, which is remarkable for its scientific advancement but man has failed to overcome floods completely. However, we can set aside the adverse results of the floods to some extent. Floods destroy everything which man achieves after a struggle of many years. They are a horrible thing. They destroy houses and buildings. They uproot the electric and telephone poles. They render thousands of people homeless.

In Punjab, the recent floods played a havoc unknown in history. Almost, all the rivers overflowed their banks and destroyed everything. The villages of Lahore, Dera Gazi Khan, Jhang, Multan and Sargodha were submerged in water. People saved their lives by climbing up the trees. The villagers were sleeping in their homes when the water of the flooding river entered their homes and caused an alarm. They were caught unawares. They rushed out of their homes without taking with them their goods and articles of the house. Epidemics broke out in the villages. Crops were destroyed. Fertile land turned barren and dry. The whole system of communication was paralysed for many days. People saved their lives by swimming in the Water. Many of them climbed up the trees. The army was called in. It was due to the sincere and dedicated efforts of the young men of the army that the lives of many flood affectees were saved. The entire machinery of Government tried its best to set aside the adverse effects of the flood. Relief centres were set up in every town, city and capital. The rich and well-to-date people came forward to help their affected brothers. The causes of the flood are many.

First, they are caused by heavy rainfall in monsoons.

Secondly, the snow on the hills begins to melt in the summer heat. The rivers get swollen. When this continues for some time, the waters rise beyond the banks of the rivers and overspread the neighbouring ground.

Thirdly, the beds of the river are not very deep. That is why they overflow very soon.

Fourthly, all the rivers of Pakistan enter our territory from India. India controls all the rivers. She has made many dams on these rivers. She lets loose a huge quantity of water into our rivers out of revenge. This cannot be controlled by our own efforts unless India cooperates with us.

Last year, l witnessed the scene of a flood in my village. The river Ravi which flows by a village was in flood. It had been raining ceaselessly for over a week. Away on the hills, it had been raining for almost a month. The terrible day came. The river Ravi overflowed its banks and there was water everywhere. There was every fear that our village would be washed away. We brought out cattle to the verandah for safety. We went to bed, but could not sleep for fear of being washed away.

The rain stopped at night. The creaking of frogs, the cries of the cattle and the shouts of men filled the air with fright. A chill wind was blowing. Our courtyard was filled with water. It was almost knee-deep. The water was still rising. Our cattle were drowned in the water. We managed to climb up the trees and stayed there for twenty-four hours. We saved our lives with great difficulty. We spent a very difficult and uncomfortable time there. The helicopters of the army reached us and took us away to a relief centre. We spent there many days and nights in the open. After eight days, the news was brought that the water of the river had gone low considerably. We came to our village and built our house again. We had a serious financial loss in our life. Our cattle and crops were taken away by the floods. We cannot forget the terrible time we had while this flood.

essay on Floods in Pakistan is important for Pakistani students. However, you should check Essay on Beauties of Nature .

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don’t use word she for india.

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Amazing content. Thank you for sharing.

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Pakistan: monsoon 2024 flash update #6 - latest monsoon developments and response efforts, as of 27 august 2024, attachments.

This report is produced by OCHA Pakistan, covering the period from 1 July to 27 August 2024.

• The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Sindh province reported a substantial increase of 26% in displacement in the Shangar district. As of 21 August, about 9,524 individuals were reportedly displaced, including 2,186 men, 2,471 women, and 4,867 children. Out of the total displaced, 2, 627 (429 men, 571 women, and 1,627 children) took shelter in the relief camps set up by the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), while the remaining displaced population are living with relatives.

• Latest data from an NGO called Bhittai Social Watch and Advocacy (BSWA) in Katcha (riverbank) areas of Sindh province indicated that 35,342 people were affected (14,277 men, 15,930 women, and 5,135 children). Of these, 290 families were displaced (130 live by the roadside, and 160 living in protected bunds), while most of the families chose to remain in their damaged and flooded houses to secure their remaining belongings.

• Cumulative data from July 1 to August 25 reveals a substantial increase in both losses and damages in the affected provinces. With a total of 243 deaths reported (83 men, 40 women, and 120 children), over 49% of the deaths are among children, highlighting their vulnerability during floods. A total of 446 were injured (158 men, 107 women, and 181 children). Flooding caused extensive damage to social infrastructure and livelihoods, with a total of 3, 654 houses damaged, while 570 livestock perished.

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Pakistan: monsoon 2024 flash update #4 - latest monsoon developments and response efforts, as of 19 august 2024, pakistan: monsoon 2024 flash update #3 - latest monsoon developments and response efforts, as of 14 august 2024, revised pakistan 2022 floods response plan final report (issued 15 dec 2023), pakistan: 2022 monsoon floods - situation report no. 19 (as of 12 august 2023).