Natural disasters have always presented serious threats to Pakistan’s human capital leading to high future capital investments by the federal and provincial governments in infrastructure.
Historically speaking, as per information gathered from various sources, between 1980-2024, Pakistan had experienced large number of 224 extreme natural disaster events.
Among these disasters, floods have become the most catastrophic threat in terms of economic damage and have impacted a vast population.
With 109 occurrences across various subtypes of flash, riverine and general floods, have affected more than 100 million individuals and have inflicted a total damage of US $ 36.4 billion, economic losses set aside . This disproportionately high impact underscores climate injustice.
Additionally, extreme temperatures , particularly heatwaves, are emerging as an ever-deadlier threat, accounting for 2741 fatalities in 13 events. Tropical cyclones, although just five in number, still have inflicted more than US $ 1.7 billion in damages. Droughts, with two reported occurrences, have still affected more than 6.9 million individuals severely and resulted in US $ 247 million of damages, highlighting the severity of the disaster and its consequences on Pakistan’s agrarian economy.
Given the scale of floods as the most significant natural hazard in Pakistan, both economically and also in terms of people displaced, the temporal dynamics of several flood events based on flood (disaster) subtype show a distinct upward trend in the occurrence of the number of flood events, especially since the mid-2000s. Whereas the 1980s and early 1990s had comparatively marked low flood events, with intervals such as 1980-84 (5 events). In 1985-89, 2 events and in 1990-4, again 5 flood events had
occurred. However, in 1995-99 and 2000-04, 9 flood events occurred each time. , indicating early signs of intensifying climate variability in the country.. However, a drastic rise in the number of flood events was noted after 2004.
Quite a significant peak was observed in 2005-2009, during which as many as 24 flood events were recorded, marking the highest number of floods of different subtypes that had occurred in the country. Although 2010-2014 had seen a decline to 11 events yet the most catastrophic flooding in Pakistan’s history had occurred in 2010, when the country experienced extraordinary rainfall which had resulted in the unprecedented floods affecting the entire length of the country.The rains/floods of 2010 had affected over 20 million people and direct damage and indirect losses were estimated approximately Rs 855 billion. Subsequently, the frequency of flood events had increased once again in 2015-2019 during which 24 events were recorded.
The recent phase (2020-2024) has also experienced a high number with 20 different flood events, indicating that floods are becoming more frequent and persistent in recent times In particular, the 2022 floods have shown Pakistan’s high susceptibility to climate change as this disaster.has demonstrated vulnerability for the people of the country. One-third of the country had gone underwater and 33 million were affected.Nearly 8 million people were reportedly displaced. The scale of the disaster was quite unprecedented as damages exceeded that of the 2010 floods. In 2022, the damage was estimated at US $ 14.9 billion, the loss to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at US $ 15.2 billion The National Climate Change Policy was initially formulated way back in 2012 and revised in 2021.The policy serves as a key document outlining the country’s strategy to combat climate change and enhancing climate resilience .
The country at large and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and Azad Kashmir in particular were currently, most unfortunately , were victims of cloud bursting, heavy rains,urban flooding flash floods , glaciers bursting and melting in an unprecedented and continuous manner and huge losses in men and material were being reported from these largely affected areas of the country .
According to the reports,it is good to note that Prime Minister Muhammad
Shehbaz Sharif and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) at the federal and provincial levels were fully seized of the great tragic events taking place causing huge losses It was quite appreciable that not only the federal government but the provincial governments were also offering assistance and cooperation to each other in these difficult times.Pak Army as usual was engaged in restoration and rehabilitation of the ravaged and completely destroyed/washed away infrastructures at the earliest possible .
In view of these tragic occurrences,.there was obviously dire need for revising and updating the National Climate Change Policy. The federal government has taken various measures and launched a number of projects with the assistance of international organizations and friendly countries for tackling climate change and cloud bursting problems besides actively participating in international events like the UN Climate Change Conference .
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in lahore.
