ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this week announced that his government would launch a national campaign against construction around rivers, water courses and streams, state-run media reported, as the death toll from deadly floods and rains since Jun. 26 surged to 788.
Environmental experts have warned that riverbed mining, unregulated logging and construction in natural flood channels weaken ecosystems, block drainage routes, and intensify the impact of heavy rains. In July, Pakistan’s mountainous northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region, which is home to over 13,000 glaciers, banned the construction of new hotels around lakes.
Deadly rains and floods have swept several parts of Pakistan, including its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, killing at least 788 persons in total since Jun. 26. KP has reported the highest number of deaths, 469, followed by Punjab with 165, Sindh with 54, GB with 45, Balochistan with 24 and Azad Kashmir with 23 casualties while Islamabad has reported eight deaths.
“A national campaign will be launched to stop construction around rivers, streams and natural water courses,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office on Saturday.
The Pakistani premier ordered the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and district administrations to continue rescue operations in the affected areas of Ghizer in GB, where a glacial lake outburst triggered a flood this week.
“The prime minister directed all concerned authorities to be fully prepared for relief operations in the lower parts of the country in view of the flood situation in the coming days,” the statement said.
Pakistani authorities have warned that monsoon showers, expected to last until Sept. 10, can trigger floods on the scale of those witnessed by the country in 2010.
Unusually heavy rains and the melting of glaciers in June 2022 triggered flash floods that at one point inundated one-third of the country, killed over 1,700 people and inflicted losses of over $30 billion, as per government estimates.
Despite contributing less than 1% to global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable nations to climate change.
Rains have wreaked havoc in several parts of the country, especially KP, since Aug. 15 where at least 406 people have been killed and 247 have been injured in rain-related incidents.
As per the Provincial Disaster Management Authority’s (PDMA) KP, these 406 casualties include 305 men, 55 women 46 children while the injured include 179 men, 38 women and 30 children.
In the northwestern Dera Ismail Khan city, eight people were killed and 48 injured on Saturday night due to roof collapses caused by heavy rainfall, the PDMA said in its latest report.
In a separate alert, the PDMA Punjab warned that heavy monsoon rainfall is expected in most districts of Punjab over the next 24 hours, adding that the eighth monsoon spell will continue until Aug. 27.
“Storm warnings have been issued for upper Punjab districts including Murree, Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, and Chakwal,” PDMA Punjab wrote.
