Flash floods across Pakistan have killed at least 310 people and injured hundreds, with the government issuing warnings of further extreme monsoon downpours in 14 more cities.
The southern city of Karachi, home to 16 million people, has seen neighbourhoods and vehicles submerged in knee-deep muddy flood water; roads are impassable. At least 15 people have died since Saturday.
Public services in the city have been suspended and businesses closed. The country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said infrastructure, road networks and 5,600 homes had been damaged.
Pakistan, which suffered an extreme heatwave earlier this year, ranks among the most vulnerable countries on the Global Climate Risk Index, which records the economic and human loss of extreme weather. Pakistan is estimated to have lost 10,000 lives due to environmental disasters, with $4bn financial losses in the decade to 2018.
“Climate is playing its part,” said Afia Salam, a climate activist. “We have shifting monsoon, we have heavier rainfalls, we have rain falling within a very short period of time which used to be spread-over, so these changing weather patterns are there. Karachi facing urban flooding is the sign of the times of unpredictable weather. We have not adapted to these changes, and we have to safeguard the people through proper planning,” she said.
“Government mismanagement is obvious: in Balochistan we always have flash floods and yet we have deaths, and in 2022 even infrastructural losses are unacceptable. There is a lack of coordination between the department and warnings issued, but disaster management is doing nothing,” said Salam.
In Karachi, traders are counting their losses, with heavy flooding in the commercial sector destroying the electronics and garments market and leading to the loss of billions of rupees.
“We have no alternative but to shift our commodities to drier and safer places because the roads turned into rivers – and even vehicles were unable to go through the muddy water on the roads,” said electronics trader Ahmed Khan.
In Orangi Town, a Karachi slum, Farooq Ali and his neighbours face a clean-up after a deluge of flood water entered their homes. “Weather is now unpredictable and life comes to a standstill when rainfall lasts even for a few hours.
“It will take weeks to drain water out, without any support from the municipal government,” said Ali, a 34-year-old vegetable vendor.
