by The farmers in South Asia rely on the rainfall of summer monons, but in recent years extreme monsoons have been destructive and fatal.
Since July, the floods during the 2025 summer must killed more than 700 people when water and mud swept through settlements and old cities. Streets in Karachi, an important port city with around 20 million people, have been flooded.
The damage was reminiscent of 2022 when the monsoon floods extended for miles across the country and displaced more than 8 million people.
Pakistan has a long history of natural disasters, from fatal heat waves to fall floods. When the global temperatures rise, the risks increased by heavy downpours, fall floods and melting glaciers.
I work on questions of water security and grew up in South Asia. I see how climate change increases the risks and creates an urgent need for a dangerously unprepared region to invest in disaster prevention.
Why Pakistan gets so extreme floods
The effects of climate change have far -reaching effects on ecosystems, human communities and the physical environment.
Increasing temperatures increase both the evaporation and the amount of moisture, which can hold the atmosphere, which leads to heavy rains.
At the same time, the warming in the mountains accelerates the melting of the snow cover and glacier. Melting glaciers increase both the drain in rivers and the risk of flooding of Lake Glacier. Gletschersee broke out when depressions are broken up by glacier ice or rock filling with melt water and overflow or through their dams.
A glacier lake outbreak in the Pakistani region of Northern Gilgit-Baltistan on August 22, 2025 showed the cascading dangers. The resulting flood damaged dozens of houses and pushed up rubble that temporarily blocked a river. After the river is blocked, water builds up and created a wide lake that threatened more floods for municipalities downstream. As a precaution, dozens of schools were evacuated.
Heavy rains in the same region had triggered landslides and floods that were stranded in 200 people a few weeks earlier.
The cryosphere of the earth – its glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice and snow cover – are an essential part of the planet’s climate system. Snow and ice-covered surfaces can reflect up to 80% or 90% of the sunlight and keep the temperatures cooler. The loss of the reflective snow and the ice cover when the temperatures increase helps to further accelerate the warming.
The temperatures have risen faster in the Himalayas region in recent decades, of about 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit (0.10 Celsius) per decade in the early 20th century to the early 21st century increased by around 0.58 f (0.32 c) per decade.
In July, Pakistan saw record heats with temperatures in Chilas in the mountains, which reached 119 f (48.5 ° C), which may have contributed to the following floods. If heat waves are hit, faster melt can cause considerable floods, especially in the lower ranges of the Indus basin, where the agricultural fields are common in the flood levels.
Delay, houses at flood levels contribute to risks
Pakistan’s challenges include a rapidly growing population, which has more than tripled since 1980, to over 250 million people.
A large part of this population, about 96 million, lives along river banks and in dried river beds. These areas offer flat, available country, but also high flood risks.
More people have also led to more deflections, which increased both a cooling source and the risk of faster floods and mudslides. From 2001 to 2024 Pakistan lost about 8% of his tree cover, mainly through logging. Some of them built large dams for hydropower.
Preparation for future disasters
Pakistan has been one of the countries that have been hit hardest in the past two decades by weather -related catastrophes, but it is 150th place from 192 countries worldwide when it comes to dealing with catastrophes, the ratings of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative.
The latest strategy to reduce the national disaster risk reduction of the National Disaster Management Authority (2025-2030) of the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority has discussed the improvement of disaster risk management since 2006. However Resources limited.
In my opinion, the susceptibility of people compared to disasters is not sufficient in my view is insufficient in my opinion in order to take into account the reduction in disaster risk. Political instability in Pakistan can also make disaster responses less effective.
The country could improve security by improving the infrastructure for the disaster, early warning networks, risk reduction to part of education and politics and improving training and sensitization programs in the community. These steps require better government and financing.
Natural -based strategies can also help for long -term protection against natural and humans produced by humans, such as: B. to build forests to reduce erosion and mud risks and improve land use planning in order to avoid building up in flood areas or to create new flood risks. The world can help by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that push climate change.
This article will be released from the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and trustworthy analyzes to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Pintu Kumar Mahla, University of Arizona
Read more:
Pintu Kumar Mahla is connected to the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona. He is also a member of the International Association of Water Law (AIDA). Pintu Kumar Mahla has received no means in connection with this article.
