A historic flood crisis.

Byline: Imtiaz Rafi Butt

THE year 2022 has brought on the worst flood in the history of Pakistan. It has been estimated that a loss of 30 billion dollars has been caused and the magnitude is mounting on a daily basis.

Nearly 1500 lives have been lost and a lot many will be endangered if relief goods are not provided immediately.

It is a race against time. Around 33 million people have been displaced from their homes, their livelihoods have been lost and they are under the open sky.

Pakistan was already struggling with a weak economy, on the verge of collapse and now this flood is going to devastate the financial outlook of the coming year.

As relief pours in from the Government, NGOs and from the international community, this is the time to look at the factors that have caused this devastation, and what are the ways we can deal with this and whether all hope is lost?

Now is not the time to sit idle. The devastation of floods has spread to the whole of Pakistan but is more pronounced in Sindh, Balochistan and the KP.

Researchers are of the opinion that this kind of catastrophic flood is not natural, rather it is the direct impact of climate change.

Considering a 30-year average, the rain this year has been around four times higher. In other words, there has been over 400% more rain than in the last 30 years.

This is particularly true for Sindh. And for the rest of the country, the rainfall has been over 140% more than the past 30 years average.

It is impossible to mitigate and tackle such a challenge without developing a thorough understanding of it.

In 2022, right from the end of March, Pakistan observed massive heat-waves. The temperature reached an alarming rate going over 40 degrees even before the start of May.

This triggered the early melting of glaciers and the breaking of glacier lake barriers. The mountains were inundated and the flow of rivers began at least three months prior.

The addition to this factor was the excessive rain that melted the snow caps bordering the flow of rivers, spilling them into larger tributaries.

And over time, the flooded lakes poured in over 200 percent more water into the channels before their actual time.

This is a direct impact of climate change and the melting of ice caps in the mountainous regions and the spilling of water from the glacier lakes into the central and southern regions.

Pakistan observes around 4 rain and monsoon systems every year. This year, till September, over 8 monsoon systems have...