The death toll from the recent monsoon floods in upper parts of the country is staggering, with nearly 350 people reported dead, including over 200 in Buner district of K-P alone. Sadly, the death toll is anticipated to rise as a number of people are injured and missing. While most of the loss of life was due to drowning and landslides, roof and bridge collapses also exposed the government’s failure to provide reliable infrastructure or housing.
It is also unfortunate that despite warnings from government officials and the media, many tourists still went to flood-affected areas or refused to evacuate, leading to resources having to be redirected to rescue them. Over 1,300 tourists were airlifted from K-P’s Mansehra alone. It is unfair to call such people victims in the traditional sense, as they chose to put their lives at risk despite warnings. Some countries make such ‘victims’ pay for the cost of their rescue. Pakistan should do the same if only to discourage similar risk-taking in the future.
And while the recent deaths are almost all in K-P and parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the National Disaster Management Authority’s data shows that over 300 people had died due to monsoon rains across the country before the ongoing disaster began. That we cannot ignore the climate change connection goes without saying. A recent study by several Pakistani and foreign contributors published by Imperial College London noted that human-induced warming increased rainfall by up to 15%, which is the difference between a pleasant monsoon rain and a deadly cloudburst.
Meanwhile, the UN launched a multimillion-dollar early warning system for Buner and Shangla less than a month ago. Once things normalise, it will be a fair question to ask whether such systems would have prevented the high loss of life. Failure to build quality infrastructure – or punish those responsible for shoddy infrastructure – must be investigated. Those behind the continuing unchecked construction of homes, including whole housing societies along riverbeds and in flood plains, must also be taken to task.
