Why the fatal floods continue in destroyed Pakistan

While the villagers collected two children, drowned in the mud, the big crowd looked excited.

They gathered in a small village in the Sawabi area in Khyber Bakhtonguwa after washing a flood of flashing several houses, besieging dozens under the rubble.

Some of them watched while the dead were transported, others continued their conversations, and the rest – along with a few rescue personnel and soldiers – continued to search for the survivors with their tools and bare hands.

There were no tears, there was no dismay. But there was anger.

For many villagers, the fact that the floods came without any warning.

“Why didn’t the government warn us soon?” It was overwhelming feelings.

But there was also anger at the lack of support from local officials.

“We need the appropriate equipment to carry out this rescue,” Asrar Khan, who was helping to dig bodies, told us.

“There were about 15 homes here, we needed an excavator.”

Although the emergency teams and the army were there for help, the equipment that was besieged to them was besieged a few hundred meters away, and it was unable to reach the way to immerse the water.

“Ambulances, medicines and excavators are on the road,” Nicar Ahmed, the Mardan Region Commissioner. But they are still unable to reach the village due to the size of the flood. Throughout the day, villagers continued to remove debris, as well as bodies.

Scenes like these are not new in Pakistan. Since June alone, monsoons have killed about 800 people across the country.

In 2022, seasonal winds killed about 1,700 people, which cost Pakistan $ 14.9 billion (11.1 billion pounds) as compensation and $ 16.3 billion in recovery and reconstruction needs, according to the World Bank.

In June this year alone, seasonal wind rain killed at least 750 people across the country.

So if history repeats itself, then why can Pakistan not protect itself from the flood attack?

The geography of Pakistan makes it very vulnerable to climate change – as the country should only deal with heavy monsoons, but severe temperatures and dehydration. Ice rivers melted new lakes at risk of ice explosions.

These trends are getting worse due to climate change, according to Dr. Sayed Faisal Saeed, the chief meteorological specialist in the Pakistani Meteorological Department (PMD).

“The monsoon winds are likely to increase in the coming decades, so this issue is not a one -year solution,” he says.

However, this is a bitter pill for swallowing for many, given that Pakistan contributes to less than 1 % of global greenhouse gas emissions.

There is a feeling that he is paying a great price for “international sins.” His boycott is the place where most deaths were registered during the seasonal winds for this year.

This is a common feeling through the political spectrum. The former Federal Climate Minister, Senator Sherry Rahman, recently argued, “When souls are lost in the global south, when rivers exploded, and when ways of living disappear, there are no real money for climate -canable countries like Pakistan.”

Some argue that the country is fighting with how to spend its own money.

Climate flexibility will always deal with other priorities – such as defense – as the federal budget has shown this year.

Amid a total drop in spending, the budget of the Ministry of Climate Change was reduced to about 9.7 million dollars (7.6 million pounds). Defense spending has been raised to about 9 billion dollars (6.93 billion pounds).

Mrs. Rahman criticized the discounts, and they argued that they were sending the wrong message. When the budget was announced, I asked: “If we do not see that we are invested in our flexibility, then why do others support us?”

The budget of the Ministry of Climate Change does not reflect climate financing in Pakistan, says Ali Toukir Sheikh, an expert in climate risk management.

Under its agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the federal government also allocated more than $ 2 billion in climate spending. However, Mr. Sheikh says it includes some current projects, such as dams and hydroelectric energy.

He says the budget aside, there are more than 1,000 incomplete development projects in the sectors.

With no short -term solution to the effects of climate change, the early warning of these harsh weather events is a priority for the Pakistani Meteorological Department (PMD).

It is difficult to predict harsh weather events like Cloudbursts in advance. It is caused by a sudden rise in wet wet air, leading to a heavy and translated fragile explosion. These villages have been destroyed in recent days.

But Dr. Saeed said that while it cannot be predicted a few days ago, the general conditions that can lead to a cloud can be determined.

“When PMD warns of heavy rains, all areas should start preparing,” says Dr. Saeed. Although he admits that PMD needs to improve his system.

“I don’t say it’s perfect.”

As part of an initiative with the World Bank, PMD purchases new radars and automatic weather stations, as well as working to improve their short -term modeling.

The biggest challenge is the exit of the word. Some of the worst episodes this summer occurred in the rural mountainous areas, where the network connection is very weak. The weather or social media accounts will not do these societies well.

The PMD experiences new ways to overcome this, along with the United Nations Development Program.

From the capital, Islamabad, PMD can lead to the sirens installed in the ice valleys in northern Pakistan, which are exposed to severe floods of the ice lake revolutions. But officials admit that this is not a silver bullet, as the damage has shown this year.

Part of the reason is that the most vulnerable societies live by RiverBeds. While many laws such as the “River Protection Law” – which prohibits construction 200 feet (61 meters) from the river or its tributaries – was passed, not only people moved, but also continued to build in these areas.

“You will erase the villages,” says Dr. Khan.

Dr. Khan argues that legislators did not think about the culture of these societies that revolve around the tribal elderly, and that tribal councils should have been consulted – to persuade people to move.

He also argues that he is “next to the impossible” if housing and alternative shelters are not funded for these societies.

Building laws are also violated in urban areas. The Pakistani commercial capital, Kratchi, was paralyzed due to the floods, as officials forced an announcement of a public holiday to deal with this.

To date, about 30 % of deaths from the seasonal wind season for this year of homes that collapse, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Dr. Yasmine Larry, an expert on climate architecture, said.

Karachi is also a victim of the bad sewage system.

Although the city has hundreds of it, it is either narrowed or banned through illegal construction.

The Minister of Housing in the Sind County, which Karachi was the capital, says finding a space for a new construction was a challenge, and when they tried to remove the stores or buildings that covered them, their attempts were banned in court.

Saeed Ghani added that a new, more punitive law was a consultant to close legal loopholes, in addition to the officers of the Senad Building Control Authority, if they agreed to the construction that violates the regulations.

If this reveals the cost of fragmented governance, there were efforts at the federal level to try to secure more assistance from the international community.

Pakistan’s faltering economy has relied on many international rescue operations. Successive governments have made the priority of searching for international support for their climatic programs.

They have received funding from the World Bank and the United Nations, as well as loans provided by the International Monetary Fund over the years.

It was a historical moment at the top of the COP27 climate. The 2022 floods were new in the minds of the attendees, and the destruction affected 33 million people. Pakistan and others have pushed to create a loss and damage box to help countries with climate disasters.

At the local level, there were individuals plans to restore natural flooding barriers. In 2023, the government launched the “National Adaptation Plan” aimed at establishing a road map at the country level.

But it remains to see how all this will develop in practice, in a country that has witnessed many political turmoil and changes in the government.

At the end of most talks, whether with officials, climate experts or victims of the front lines of these harsh weather events, there is a specific charter. “Poverty is the worst thing,” says Dr. Larry.

Without enough money, whether from the international community, the federal government, or the boycott budget, it is difficult to implement the solutions that they all preached.

Better early warning system, new homes on the safer lands, climate infrastructure-all of which take funding and any progress so far has not prevented hundreds of people who were killed this year.

“Everything from top to bottom,” explains Dr. Larry. She says there is a lot of dependence on governments, without sufficient results. If Pakistan does not have the means to finance these solutions, it must focus on educating the population and creating a “escape from poverty” at the level of the popular base.

It refers to her work in thousands of villages, and she shares knowledge of the homes of climate reference, food security and tree planting.

Meanwhile, the seasonal wind season has not ended this year – nor a feeling of loss and sadness.

Returning to the village in the Sawabi area, a funeral was running for those found, just a few meters from the rescue operation.

The prayers were threatened in complete harmony, as the country was prepared for more warnings than heavy rains, and more danger they struggle for protection.