ISLAMABAD: At least 30 people have been killed this week in rain-related disasters in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and three in Punjab, official data released on Friday showed, as heavy rains and flash floods continued to lash parts of the South Asian country.
The arrival of the monsoon season has sparked floods and landslides across South Asia in the past week, with at least 195 killed and almost 200 missing in one disaster in neighboring India.
On Thursday, the second-largest city of Lahore in Punjab province was drenched in the most rainfall it had received in more than four decades, with three people reported dead as homes, shops and hospitals were flooded. In the north, rain caused floods and building collapses and heightened the risk of electrocution.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority had warned earlier this week strong monsoon currents from the Bay of Bengal would trigger heavy rains and flash floods in the Azad Kashmir region as well as the provinces of Punjab Sindh and KP. At least 24 people were killed and 17 wounded in KP rain-related incidents in the last three days.
“Two men perished in a landslide incident in Kohat district [in KP], one died when his house collapsed in Buner district while another lost his life in a flashflood in Upper Chitral,” the KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority said in its daily report on Friday, bringing the total number of people killed in KP in the last four days to 30, with 19 injured.
“Two children were killed when flashfloods passed through Upper Dir and Abottabad while two women sustained injuries when the roof of their homes collapsed in Mardan.”
The report said 32 houses were damaged by heavy rain, flashfloods and land sliding incidents.
Pakistan is recognized as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change effects in the world.
Last month, a United Nations official warned that an estimated 200,000 people in Pakistan could be affected by the ongoing monsoon season. In 2022, unusually heavy rains triggered flash floods in many parts of the country, killing over 1,700 people, inflicting losses of around $30 billion, and affecting at least 30 million people.
