Climate Change and Floods: Lessons for Pakistan
The recent monsoon floods, which killed hundreds of people and destroyed infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir, have highlighted Pakistan's extreme susceptibility to climate change
Pakistan has been grappling with the catastrophic effects of climate change, with over 400 people murdered since the middle of August 2025. The recent monsoon floods, which killed hundreds of people and destroyed infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir, have highlighted Pakistan's extreme susceptibility to climate change.
Even a major metropolis like Karachi was unable to prevent the devastating effects of the monsoon floods. Karachi was flooded after a torrential downpour. The flooding has paralyzed the southern port metropolis of 20 million people, which is almost the biggest in geographical and population size than many European countries, less than a week after horrific flash floods wiped out towns in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Almost half of the country's crops were destroyed due to torrential rains and flooding, which could be a primary cause of food shortages throughout Pakistan.
Despite producing less than 1% of the greenhouse gases that warm the earth, Pakistan is particularly sensitive to climate change due to its geographic location. This is why roughly one-third of Pakistan is flooded, including houses that have been submerged in floodwaters.
What is driving the floods in Pakistan?
However, the question remains: what is driving the floods in Pakistan? There could be numerous contributing factors, but some of the most important are unplanned urbanization, poor and inadequate infrastructure, poor river management, and widespread deforestation. Pakistan's forest cover has decreased from 3.78 million hectares in 1992 to 3.09 million hectares in 2025, accounting for only 5% of the total land area under forest, the lowest in South Asia —a trend directly linked to increased floods and landslides.
The Buner district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been the most severely affected, with over 200 people dead and massive damage to houses and public buildings throughout the northwestern mountainous province. This is evident that impoverished countries with weaker flood defense, lower-quality houses, and crumbling infrastructure are less prepared to cope with significant rainfall and flooding.This explains why more than 4,000 homes were destroyed by flooding during the same time period.
The devastation caused by these floods was not limited to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Karachi also suffered greatly as a result, as mentioned already. Rainwater in Karachi is mostly evacuated through natural storm water drains, known as nullahs. According to research, Karachi creates more than 20,000 tons of solid trash each day, which blocks the nullahs.
In 2020, Arif Hasan, an architect and planner, told Dawn that working-class families build encroachments throughout these nullahs because there was no viable social housing program in place. The nullahs are used for sewage disposal in both formal developments and informal communities. Therefore, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization is the cause of urban flooding, which exacerbates floods in places like Karachi and Lahore as well by decreasing natural drainage and increasing surface runoff.
Measures and Interventions
Mitigating flooding in Pakistan necessitates a multifaceted approach that addresses both structural and non-structural measures. Structural steps include the construction and maintenance of drainage systems, reservoirs, and the restoration of natural waterways. Urban areas should use green infrastructure such as permeable pavements and rain gardens to absorb water and prevent run-off. Urban design should incorporate land use management to avoid developing in flood-prone locations.
Non-structural interventions include the use of cutting-edge early warning systems, improved disaster preparedness, flood risk education in communities, and increased disaster management coordination. Pakistan also has enormous glaciers in the northern region, which make it vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The northern region of Pakistan is frequently referred to as the 'third pole' since it has more glacial ice than anywhere else in the world, other than the polar regions. Now these Glaciers are actually melting due to global warming.
Glaciers in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are melting rapidly, resulting in the formation of over 3,000 lakes, according to the UN Development Programme. Around 33 of these are at risk of exploding unexpectedly, releasing millions of cubic meters of water and debris,by endangering 7 million people. Pakistan received approximately 190% more rain than its 30-year normal between June and August, totaling 390.7mm. Flooding has also affected places which normally do not ordinarily receive this type of rain, such as southern Sindh and Balochistan, which are normally desert or semi-arid.
China Example
Another problem that is exacerbating the damage brought on by intense rainfall and flash floods is the widespread deforestation. Pakistan now has the lowest percentage of land covered by forests in South Asia, with just 3.09 million hectares remaining in 2025, down from 3.78 million hectares in 1992.
Given that China has become a global leader in afforestation and flood control, some contend that Pakistan may follow the suit. With more than 66 million hectares of trees planted since 2012, it has increased forest coverage above 25% and contributed to almost 25% of the world's new forests.
Pakistan can learn from China's response to the floods that occurred there in 1998. Following the disaster, Beijing implemented major reforestation and watershed management programs, restored wetlands, and invested in "sponge cities"—urban areas meant to absorb rainwater and prevent runoff. These actions reduce flood peaks by as much as 30%.
Pakistan, particularly in metropolitan cities like Karachi, can implement this technique.The consequences of floods can also be reduced through implementing techniques like stringent river zoning to prohibit building on floodplains, check dams and terracing in hilly areas to restrict water flow, and eco-agriculture methods to preserve soil cover in Pakistan.
To prevent additional damage to crops and fields, the nation should prioritize rehabilitating wetlands and lakes that have been harmed by unrestrained urbanization, have adequate drainage systems, and make investments in rainwater gathering. Either, it is a political or a climate concern, each needs effective governance and administration policies.
The primary cause of every issue in any society, including Pakistan, is a weak administration and a lack of governance. With good administration, the government may impose strong restrictions and fines on tree cutting, reduce illegal logging, provide transparent climate finance, and provide alternative livelihoods to forest-dependent populations.
Climate Crisis
It can also curb unplanned urbanization and eliminate unlawful encroachments to prevent future weather disasters. Besides all other issues, the major issue facing Pakistan right now is the climate crisis. The government must take the aforementioned efforts to address the issue, but at the grassroots level, community-driven activities are equally crucial. The government may prevent the terrible effects of climate change by cooperating with local organizations on an emergency basis, replanting trees, and carefully planning urban structures.
Experts caution that without immediate reforms in afforestation, watershed management, and environmental protection, Pakistan will remain extremely vulnerable to recurrent floods, heatwaves, and droughts in the years to come. Given its already precarious financial situation, Pakistan cannot afford to take these actions. The lower middle class suffers greatly from these torrential rains because they are the ones who lost their homes; therefore, it must be the responsibility of the provincial and federal governments to properly rescue them and provide them with adequate living conditions.
Also Read: Cities Waterlogged: How Infrastructure Failures Swamp Pune and Mumbai
Proper housing planning and construction infrastructure is the most important aspects in designing any metropolitan city across the world. Inadequate infrastructure and housing planning in metropolitan cities such as Karachi have already proven disastrous. Pakistan must learn from China, specifically how to engineer and design cities like Karachi, which are heavily populated and have limited resources.
There is no practical way to stop cities like Karachi from experiencing more disasters than proper housing and the construction of sufficient infrastructure. If Pakistan does not take the precautionary measures, the flood rain and landslides could cause widespread destruction, potentially leading to a famine situation and the destruction of more homes, which could be a burden on the national economy. Therefore, the national and local governments need to take action to prevent this disaster from occurring in the future.
[The writer, Arooba Abbasi, has recently graduated with a MPhil degree in IR from the Muslim Youth University, Islamabad. She is a regular contributor in The Spokesman Daily and Stratheia in Pakistan.]
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