ISLAMABAD: The upcoming monsoon rains can cause “devastating” floods in Pakistan, the prime minister’s coordinator on climate change, Romina Khurshid Alam, said on Friday, urging authorities to ensure access to relief camps is provided to people in vulnerable areas.
The chief of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday issued a similar warning, saying that the country’s Sindh and Punjab provinces could face an “emergency” situation during the upcoming monsoon season.
Monsoon season in Pakistan typically runs from July to September. Large swathes of the South Asian nation were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers, a phenomenon linked to climate change that damaged crops and infrastructure and killed at least 1,700 people. The floods also displaced millions and inflicted billions of dollars in losses.
“Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Romina Khurshid Alam on Friday stressed that the upcoming monsoon rains could lead to devastating floods,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report.
Chairing a meeting of the government’s task force on global warming and heat waves, Alam called for relief camps in vulnerable areas to be heavily advertised so that people may get access to them.
Many parts of the country remained in the grip of a severe heat wave last month that experts attributed to climate change effects. Alam highlighted the “urgent need” for protective measures against severe threats of heat waves and floods to food, health, and the economy.
“Hazards cannot be stopped but can be handled,” she was quoted as saying by the state media.
Alam directed authorities to address the issue of deforestation and dumping of trees in nullahs, saying these could damage bridges during floods, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Kashmir.
The prime minister’s aide was told that most of the measures against floods such as the establishment of relief camps, mapping of resources, desilting of nullahs, and public awareness campaigns had already been taken.
Separately, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab said authorities in the province had been cleaning and de-silting nullahs immediately to deal with any pre-monsoon-related eventualities.
PDMA Punjab Director-General Irfan Ali Kathia said the authority had warned of potential urban flooding in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Narowal and Rawalpindi cities, adding that administrations in these cities had been alerted accordingly.
“In case of rains, immediate drainage of water should be ensured in every city. Wherever there is a risk of flood, early measures should be taken,” he was quoted as saying by the APP.
