Feedback on last week’s article titled “Watermarked Pakistan”, coupled with the tragic loss of life and property in recent KPK floods, warranted a need to focus on the devastation thus caused in the past few decades or so, underlining the role of climate change in these floods. This further propelled me to give a thought regarding how and why we failed as people, and so did our successive governments. Readers may dismiss it from the outset, but to conclude, I have still given some thought to the possibility of regulating floods with joint efforts with India.
Flood after flood, we have faced an exponentially increasing loss of life and material. Every few years, the Indus River and its tributaries swell and rage beyond their banks, inundating villages, destroying infrastructure, and washing away livelihoods. This tale is woven with two strands: one, the economic toll these floods leave behind (foremost concern) and two, the water that eventually makes its way to the Arabian Sea (a relegated thought for decades)
Every few years, the Indus River and its tributaries swell and rage beyond their banks, inundating villages, destroying infrastructure, and washing away livelihoods.
Since the 1980s, Pakistan has suffered repeated floods; the 2010 and 2022 disasters stand out as the costliest, causing losses of up to US$43 43Bn and US$30 30Bn, respectively. These billion-dollar losses were coupled with another invaluable, irreversible and irrecoverable loss of approximately 525 MAF of water escaping to the sea. The figures are drawn from government reports, international development agencies, and media accounts spanning ten peak flood seasons in the past four decades, as a case in point. Earlier floods used to be translated in terms of financial losses; the sense of loss of these waters running down to the sea came much later. In the last two decades, these floods have found a new attribute: climate change.
Climate change and its escalating impacts have significantly heightened Pakistan’s vulnerability to flooding by altering the monsoon cycle, extreme rainfall, increasing glacial melt, and cloud bursts, causing premature river swelling and flash floods linked to unprecedented heatwaves. The risk of sudden Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) is exacerbated by melting glaciers. The ongoing flood season of 2025 is sending in gushing waters down our streams and rivers, playing havoc with life and property. Especially the situation in Buner is serious, and actual losses are yet to be ascertained. The peculiar pattern manifests flash flooding at unlikely places, and that too without any warning. It is a stark reminder of how global warming intensifies natural disasters. The recent rains in Karachi expose another dilemma we face owing to inadequate urban planning and infrastructure in cities.
We failed as people. Despite repeated floods, we have not internalised the lessons nature keeps teaching us. We continue to disrespect rivers through encroachments and poor planning, respond reactively instead of being preemptive, and fail to demand real accountability from leaders who make promises but deliver little. Climate change remains a distant concept for many and a politicised slogan at best, even as its effects devastate lives, displace families, inundate harvests and flood our cities. While solidarity shines briefly during crises, it recedes with receding waters, leaving communities to struggle alone. As people, we are yet to turn our grief into lasting change.
We failed at governance. Successive governments in Pakistan have failed to treat floods as a recurring reality rather than seasonal crises. Infrastructure is built but poorly maintained, early warnings rarely reach vulnerable communities, and urban planning continues to ignore drainage and encroachment issues. Corruption drains relief and rehabilitation funds, leaving victims unprotected and promises unfulfilled. While leaders speak about climate change on global platforms, domestic action remains reactive and limited, with little investment in resilience, renewable energy, or sustainable water management. Ultimately, governments have not learned that long-term planning, maintenance, accountability, and genuine climate adaptation are the only ways to reduce the recurring devastation of floods.
Pakistan cannot stop floods entirely, but it can greatly reduce their damage by adopting a proactive, climate-informed strategy. Investing in strengthening institutions, empowering communities, and building international partnerships are all essential steps. Climate change is a global challenge, but with the right policies, Pakistan can protect its people, economy, and ecosystems from its worst impacts. This requires investing in modern, climate-resilient infrastructure, from stronger embankments to evacuation to flood-proof hospitals, and strengthening forecasting systems that deliver timely, local-language warnings. Awareness and educating the masses on flood crisis management are imperative. Smarter water and river management, including reservoirs, reforestation, and ecological flows to the Indus Delta, can balance floods and droughts. In cities, reformed urban planning and drainage upgrades are critical, while empowering local governments and communities with training and resources will make first responders stronger. Dedicated climate financing and insurance mechanisms can ease the economic burden. Together, these measures can form a roadmap for safeguarding lives and livelihoods against future floods.
With regards to river management, dictates of our geography preclude the option for us to take this on, solo. Joint management of rivers with India, therefore, holds the key to flood regulation through data sharing and coordinated adaptation. It may look far-fetched and sound even ridiculous, as of now, but both countries ultimately have to look for modalities for joint and accurate sharing of river flow data during monsoon seasons in real-time, mutual funding of research and planning to protect future water supplies, after all, Himalayan glaciers are melting fast on both sides. An epitome of this cooperation can be joint construction and control of hydroelectric or irrigation projects (may be under international watchdog arrangements) for saving lives and mutual economic benefits of the people on both sides of the divide. We, as lower riparian, along with the world, have to make India realise its role as an upper riparian. We have to drive home the point that water is not a commodity or bargaining chip anymore, through aggressive diplomacy. It is a medium for peace, the regulation of which can never be ensured through wars. After all, peace has to flow as naturally as water, from the upper riparian to the lower one.
The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at zulfiqar.shirazi @gmail.com