Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Musadik Malik, has stated that some of the nation’s most influential people have built hotels directly in the paths of rivers, exacerbating the destructive power of floods. During Geo News’ ‘Naya Pakistan’ program, which featured a wide-ranging discussion on climate change, floods, and governance failures, he remarked, “The unfortunate part is that those granting them NOCs (no-objection certificates) are also from among us.”
Malik conceded that “Pakistan’s early warning system remains incomplete.” He mentioned that a plan to install 300 systems began in 2017, but only 12 were operational when he took office. He added that completely accurate weather forecasting is impossible and emphasized that only forests can slow the force of floodwaters.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab told the panel that planting trees is not enough; they require care to survive. He noted that encroachments on natural waterways are a primary cause of the city’s flooding, adding, “Nature always reclaims its own paths.” He also criticized the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), pointing out that it had predicted a decrease in rainfall for August 19, but the opposite happened. “In the past 90 years, we have never seen this much rain in August,” he said.
Climate expert Dr. Imran Ahmed suggested that better data could improve forecasting. He recalled that 27 sites in Karachi had been identified for recharge wells, which could help absorb stormwater into the ground.
Meteorologist Ali Tauqeer Sheikh observed: “Pakistan no longer faces only river floods but urban floods too, yet continues to treat trees only as timber.” Water resources specialist Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah warned that extreme weather events, once rare, are now occurring regularly. “Pakistan has already lost water equal to the storage capacity of the Tarbela and Mangla dams,” he said. He cautioned that while “we cannot stop global warming, we must ensure people do not live permanently in high-risk zones.”
Urban planning professor Nausheen Anwar said that profit-driven development has taken precedence over proper planning. Pointing to serious weaknesses in how Pakistan’s cities are built and managed, she stated, “Climate change is a challenge, but our mismanagement is an equally big problem.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently announced a nationwide crackdown to curb construction along rivers, streams, and other natural waterways, as the death toll from weeks of flooding climbed to 788 by August 24. For years, experts have been warning that unchecked riverbed mining, illegal logging, and building structures on flood channels disrupt fragile ecosystems, choke drainage paths, and make heavy rains and the resulting floods far more destructive.
Last month, authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan, a region with over 13,000 glaciers, banned the construction of new hotels near lakes to limit damage. Since June 26, torrential rains and floods have battered large parts of the country, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suffering the worst losses. The province has reported 469 deaths. Punjab has recorded 165, Sindh 54, Gilgit-Baltistan 45, Balochistan 24, and Azad Kashmir 23. Islamabad has reported eight fatalities.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that the monsoon spell, likely to last through September 10, could bring floods on the same scale as the 2010 disaster. Back then, entire districts were submerged, while in 2022, heavy summer rains combined with rapidly melting glaciers unleashed massive flash floods that submerged nearly a third of the country. According to official estimates, over 1,700 people lost their lives, and damages exceeded $30 billion. Although Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global greenhouse gases, it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change and its consequences.
