Arfa Syed
ON 15 August 2025, Bishnoi in Buner district was swept away without warning.
The flood surged with uprooted logs, crushing homes and trapping families. One family of 20 clung to what they could carry; when the waters receded, only two survived. Some bodies were found, others remained missing. What endured was only what the waters spared.
This is the face of the 2025 monsoon floods. Since 26 June, at least 706 lives have been lost — 427 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone, with hundreds more across Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Sindh. In Buner, 207 people died after a cloudburst turned villages into ruins. Homes were washed away, roads collapsed and thousands were left with nothing but despair.
When Alerts Fail: The water wasn’t the only force that destroyed lives. It was also the silence — no sirens, no alerts, no messages. Pakistan’s early warning system (EWS), touted as “multi-hazard,” collapsed when it was most needed. Conceived after the 2010 floods and scheduled for completion by 2022, it remains incomplete in 2025 — a phantom of resilience.
Former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser accused the federal government of squandering USD 188 million under the World Bank’s Integrated Flood Resilience and Adaptation Project, leaving millions unprotected. On paper, resilience was promised. In practice, people were abandoned.
In Ghizer valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, no official alert came before the glacial lake outburst flood on 22 August. Despite a USD 37 million UNDP project meant to reduce GLOF risk, it was local herders who ran to warn villagers. They saved lives even as 330 homes were swallowed. Communities promised safety were left defenseless.
Minutes, Not Hours: Across KP, AJK and GB, people had only minutes to act. No texts, no loudspeakers, no warnings. Families tied ropes across rivers, placed children on makeshift rafts and watched helplessly as water claimed their homes. An early warning system that does not reach people is not a system — it is betrayal dressed as policy.
Excuses, Again: Officials argue cloudbursts cannot be predicted. Technically true, but misleading. Other countries issue probabilistic forecasts, alerting communities to prepare for flash floods. Pakistan chose silence.
Since 2010, disaster management has remained fragmented: NDMA at the top, PDMAs in provinces, DDMAs in districts — each step further from the people who need warnings. The script repeats: tragedy, donor appeals, short-term relief, then neglect. Money flows, promises are made, systems announced — yet when the skies open, villages drown alone.
Not Just Rain: The floods of 2025 are not merely a climate story. Climate change brought the hazard, but governance failure turned it into devastation. If this cycle continues, each monsoon will bring not just rain, but graves.
Way Forward: Pakistan cannot endure another monsoon unprepared. A multi-hazard EWS must be made fully functional, reaching communities directly through mobile alerts, radio, loudspeakers and local networks. Families need timely, actionable warnings supported by probabilistic forecasts and community drills that explain not only what is coming, but how to respond. Silence cannot be our warning. Communities deserve alerts, action and accountability — not abandonment.
—The writer is a climate and health advocate working in the field of climate finance in Pakistan.
