Climate Change Intensifies Historic Floods in Pakistan, Causing Devastating Losses and Highlighting Urgent Need for Climate Action
In recent weeks, unprecedented rainfall across Pakistan has resulted in devastating floods, claiming hundreds of lives and causing widespread destruction. A new study by an international consortium of scientists, World Weather Attribution, suggests that human-induced climate change exacerbated these torrential downpours, making them up to 15% more intense than they would have been otherwise.
The study found that this increased precipitation contributed significantly to numerous building collapses in both urban and rural Pakistan, with at least 300 reported deaths and over 1,600 damaged houses confirmed by the government.
Saqib Hassan, a 50-year-old businessman from northern Pakistan, experienced firsthand the devastation caused by these floods. On July 22, his home and 18 relatives’ homes were destroyed along with their dairy farms, resulting in substantial financial losses estimated at around $360,000 USD. The only warning they received to evacuate was a last-minute announcement from a nearby mosque, leaving them with meager food rations worth $177 USD and seven tents as temporary shelter for the past two weeks.
Climate scientist Jakob Steiner based in Islamabad notes that recent extreme weather events are occurring faster than anticipated due to high temperatures and intense precipitation driven by global warming. Steiner, a geoscientist with the University of Graz, Austria, specializing in water resources and associated risks in mountain regions, has observed an accelerated pace of these events in the last few weeks, including those affecting Pakistan and other South Asian countries.
These extreme monsoon rains have led to numerous disasters across the region, particularly impacting the Himalayan mountains that span five countries. In July, overflowing glacial lakes caused flooding that destroyed a critical bridge connecting Nepal and China and damaged several hydropower dams. Earlier this week, a village in northern India suffered floods and landslides, resulting in at least four deaths and leaving hundreds missing.
The WWA study, published early Thursday, indicates that climate change is making floods in Pakistan more dangerous due to the warmer atmosphere’s ability to hold more moisture, leading to heavier rainfall. Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London and lead author of the WWA study, emphasizes the urgency of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy as every tenth of a degree of warming increases monsoon rainfall intensity.
Pakistan contributes minimally to greenhouse gas emissions yet experiences disproportionate damage from extreme weather events. In 2022, Pakistan faced its most destructive monsoon season with floods that claimed over 1,700 lives and caused approximately $40 billion in damages. According to the United Nations, funding for climate change adaptation and loss and damage mitigation falls significantly short of the required amounts needed to support countries like Pakistan in addressing the impact of human-induced climate change.
The WWA report highlights that much of Pakistan’s rapidly growing urban population resides in makeshift homes located in flood-prone areas, with home collapses accounting for over half of the 300 reported deaths. Maja Vahlberg from the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre stresses the importance of building flood-resilient houses and avoiding construction in flood zones to reduce the impact of heavy monsoon rain.