There are no indications that the floods that are presently ravaging the nation will stop. As the downpours continue and the rivers continue to grow, the flooding has so far spread to southern Punjab this week. The loss of homes, farms, lives, and other infrastructure and property keeps increasing. Authorities in Sindh are preparing for the same kind of catastrophe that Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are currently facing as the rivers continue to send the surplus water south. Rainfall and water discharges from India seem to be the primary causes of floods at the moment. However, the nation must also be concerned about the frozen waters, not just the water from the sky or the east. Last Sunday, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) warned of flooding in the country’s higher regions, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi, with a high-priority alert for glacial lake outburst floods (Glofs). With all the rain, it is easy to forget that summer is still here and that floods from glacial melt is still a possibility. The resulting image shows a nation caught in a maelstrom of multiple unfavorable climatic trends that are all coming together at once. Naturally, climate change and the fact that the globe has now passed the tipping point for climate change are the causes of all these developments. Zooming out from Pakistan reveals a world caught in a climate crisis summer. India and Pakistan are in much the same predicament in the nearby vicinity, with monsoon floods in the northern parts of India engulfing thousands of communities and taking many lives. But it’s not just the water from the sky or the east that the country needs to worry about—it’s also the frozen rivers. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued a high-priority notice for glacial lake outburst floods (Glofs) last Sunday, warning of flooding in the country’s higher regions, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It is easy to forget that summer is still here and that floods from glacial melt are still a threat because of all the rain. The nations of the globe seem to be acting in the complete opposite way from what one might anticipate in the middle of the environmental disaster. We see India immediately suspending the IWT instead of increasing cooperation, endangering vital collaboration with Pakistan on issues like flooding and water releases. The wealthy nations that are still at the forefront of the carbon emissions crisis are resolutely disregarding the Global South’s nations as they continue to make their well-founded arguments for aid and reparations. Local leaders are the only ones to turn to when international environmental cooperation appears to be in ruins. They also need to perform better. Even while the current monsoon’s relief and rescue efforts have been generally praiseworthy, long-term climate resilience is still a ways off. One may be dissatisfied with the absence of international assistance, but it is insufficient to be unable to offer ideas that can be funded. The unsustainable urban sprawl that is placing more people in flood-prone areas is also not being continued. Pakistani citizens can now rely only on the state, hence it needs to perform better.
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