Images of how bad the monsoon rains have been in a large part of Pakistan are all over social media. People who live in low-lying areas, in the path of hill torrents, or on poorly built embankments are miserable because of the floods caused by the monsoon spell.
Floods from glacial lake outbursts have happened many times in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, but they rarely make the news.
When it rains hard in Balochistan, hill torrents rage down their beds, streams and rivers overflow, and whatever is in their way gets washed away. This causes a lot of damage and loss of life and livestock. These have been alternating with droughts, which are also common in this region.
Sindh has either not enough water or too much water. The monsoon has been harsh and constant this year, just like it has been the last couple of years.
Its towns and cities are flooded, and the people’s misery doesn’t seem to end because the water levels aren’t going down. Karachi, the provincial capital, has been hit hard by rains that have never happened before and have broken all records.
Parts of Punjab were hit by what is still called “pre-monsoon” weather, with heavy rain and hail storms in March that flattened crops that were already growing. All of these things happened after a severe heat wave that affected the whole country, even the northern glacial valleys, where temperatures reached more than 30 degrees Celsius.
What is making the weather in Pakistan so crazy? Well, this is what scientists who study climate and weather have been saying for years.
One sign of climate change is that weather events are happening more often and getting stronger. When the temperature of the sea surface goes up, the weather systems take in more water, which they then drop over the land in unprecedented amounts. Our systems are not set up to handle even half of that number. Because of this, cities have streets that are flooded and drains that are full.
Nature shows its anger at the things people have done to get in its way by reclaiming river and stream beds and slopes where trees have been cut down. It does this by bringing down boulders and other trash in hilly areas and along river banks. The extreme weather and unpredictable rain are clear signs that climate change is having an effect.
This is why Pakistan needs to focus on making its infrastructure and systems more resistant to natural shocks. That’s the only way to deal with it since we can’t do much to stop it.
Mahnur is MS(development Studies)Student at NUST University, completed BS Hons in Eng Literature. Content Writer, Policy analyst, Climate Change specialist, Teacher, HR Recruiter.
