Whereas South Asia’s seasonal monsoon brings rainfall that farmers rely upon, local weather change is making it lethal.
Printed On 31 Aug 2025
Pakistan’s jap Punjab province is coping with the biggest flood in its historical past, a senior official has stated, as water ranges of rivers rise to all-time highs.
International warming has worsened monsoon rains this yr in Pakistan, one of many international locations most vulnerable to climate change, in line with a brand new examine. Downpours and cloudbursts have triggered flash floods and landslides throughout the mountainous north and northwest in latest months.
Residents in jap Punjab have additionally skilled irregular quantities of rain, in addition to cross-border flooding after India launched water from swollen rivers and its overflowing dams into Pakistan’s low-lying areas.
“That is the most important flood within the historical past of the Punjab. The flood has affected two million folks. It’s the primary time that the three rivers — Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi — have carried such excessive ranges of water,” the senior minister for the province, Marriyum Aurangzeb, instructed a press convention on Sunday.
Native authorities have been evacuating folks and utilizing instructional establishments, police and safety amenities as rescue camps, she stated.
Pakistani TV channels additionally confirmed folks clambering into rescue boats and crusing throughout totally submerged farmland to security. Others loaded belongings into boats, salvaging what remained from broken houses, now deserted.
In a former classroom within the area, now a makeshift aid camp, pregnant ladies have begun taking refuge from the floods.
Shumaila Riaz, 19 years previous and 7 months pregnant together with her first baby, spent the previous 4 days within the aid camp, enduring being pregnant cramps.
“I needed to consider the kid I’m going to have, however now, I’m not even sure about my very own future,” she instructed the AFP information company.
Clad in soiled garments they’ve worn for days and with unbrushed hair, ladies huddled within the overcrowded college internet hosting greater than 2,000 folks, surrounded by mud and stagnant rainwater.
Whereas South Asia’s seasonal monsoon brings rainfall that farmers rely upon, local weather change is making the phenomenon extra erratic, and lethal, throughout the area.
In Multan, authorities have additionally put in explosives at 5 key embankments to divert water away from town, if wanted, forward of an enormous wave on its means from the Chenab River.
Multan Commissioner Amir Kareem Khan stated drones had been used to watch low-lying areas whereas groups tried to influence residents who had not but evacuated to take action.
“The water is coming in giant portions — we can’t struggle it, we can’t cease it,” Deputy Commissioner Wasim Hamad Sindhu stated, interesting to folks to hunt shelter in government-run camps.
Aurangzeb added on Sunday that the International Ministry can be “amassing information relating to India’s deliberate launch of water into Pakistan”. There was no speedy remark from India.
India had alerted Pakistan to the potential for cross-border flooding final week, the primary public diplomatic contact between the rivals since a disaster introduced them near battle in Might.
Punjab, dwelling to some 150 million folks, is a crucial a part of Pakistan’s agricultural sector and is the nation’s most important wheat producer.
Ferocious flooding in 2022 worn out enormous swathes of crops within the east and south of the nation, main Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to warn that the nation confronted meals shortages.
