With 87 deaths being reported from different events by the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan throughout the last week due to rains, more than 44 thousand have been displaced. Most casualties caused by the rains have been due to structural collapses, and among 2,715 houses that have been destroyed are 490 multi-story buildings.
The worst-hit region is the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 36 people lost their lives and 53 others sustained injuries due to torrential downpours. In Punjab, 25 deaths and eight injuries were reported. Balochistan witnessed 15 fatalities and 10 injuries, while Pakistan-occupied Kashmir recorded 11 deaths and 11 injuries.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed his sympathy for the lives and property of those who were lost and his instructions for the concerned departments to speed up the relief efforts and reopen the roads in the affected area as soon as possible. NDMA has already forecasted further rainfall up to 29 April, but heavier rainfall, landslides, and flash floods are expected from 25 to 29 April. This role of heavy rains in the month of April is linked with climate change, and this is what rose to dawn from Zaheer Ahmed Babar, the senior official at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, who mentioned that an increase in rainfall in comparison to normal levels has been a significant cause.
Mr. Rafay Alam, an environmental expert, had pointed out that such high severity levels in spring occurrences are unnatural and attributed them to climate change. Alam alluded to the disastrous floods of 2022 that swamped the majority of the country, took away many lives, and indirectly damaged the overall system. This torrent of flood has England involved in a titanic battle over economy and infrastructure issues to help it restore what has been destroyed. This effort is persistent and never-ending.
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