ISLAMABAD: An official of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warned on Sunday that Pakistan may face floods “of the same scale” as those witnessed in 2022, saying the country was likely to experience three more monsoon rain spells till Sept. 10.
Monsoon rains have wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s northern areas, especially its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where floods and landslides have killed over 313 people and injured 156 in the last three days, as per official figures.
As per the NDMA’s report, Pakistan’s cumulative death toll since Jun. 26 from rain-related incidents has surged to 645. KP has reported the highest number of deaths at 383, followed by Punjab with 164, the northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Sindh with 28 deaths each, Balochistan 29, Azad Kashmir 14 and Islamabad eight casualties.
The devastation is a grim reminder of the cataclysmic floods of June 2022, where unusually heavy rains and the melting of glaciers triggered flash floods in several parts of the country. Pakistan reported at least 1,700 people dead and losses of over $30 billion, with large swathes of crops and critical infrastructure damaged by raging waters.
“Although the 2022 floods had a different pattern, the ongoing cloudbursts and heavy monsoon spells this year suggest that a similar flood situation cannot be ruled out,” Muhammad Idrees Mehsud, a member of the NDMA’s Disaster Risk Reduction unit, told reporters during a media briefing in Islamabad.
