Pakistan has not learned lessons from the deadly floods of 2022, experts say

ISLAMABAD – Millions of people in Pakistan continue to live along flood lines, showing that neither the population nor the government have learned lessons from the devastating floods of 2022 that killed 1,737 people, experts said on Thursday. An aid group said half of the victims among the 300 people killed by the rains since July were children.

Heavy rains are currently drenching the areas that were severely hit by floods two years ago.

The aid organization Save the Children said in a statement that more than 150 children have died in floods and heavy rains in Pakistan since the start of the monsoon season, accounting for more than half of all deaths in rain-affected areas.

The organization said 200 children in Pakistan had been injured by the rains, which had also left thousands homeless. Save the Children also said those affected by the floods were living in a relief camp in Sanghar, a district in the southern province of Sindh that was hit by severe flooding two years ago.

“The rains and floods have destroyed 80 percent of the cotton crop in Sanghar, the farmers’ main source of income, and killed hundreds of livestock,” the charity said, adding that it is supporting the affected people with the help of a local partner.

Khuram Gondal, country director of Save the Children in Pakistan, said that children are always the hardest hit in a disaster.

“We need to ensure that the immediate impact of the floods and heavy rains do not become long-term problems. In Sindh province alone, the education of over 72,000 children has been disrupted,” he said.

Another aid agency, Britain-based Islamic Relief, said weeks of torrential rain in Pakistan had caused renewed displacement and suffering among communities already devastated by the 2022 floods and still struggling to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Asif Sherazi, the group’s country director, said his group was caring for people affected by the floods.

There was no immediate response from the Ministry of Climate Change and the country’s national disaster management agency.

Pakistan has not yet undertaken any major reconstruction efforts because the government has not received most of the $9 billion pledged by the international community at last year’s donor conference in Geneva.

“We have not learned any lessons from the 2022 floods. Millions of people have built mud brick houses along river banks that normally remain dry,” said Mohsin Leghari, who served as irrigation minister years ago.

Leghari said Pakistan’s monsoon season is forecast to have less rainfall than in 2022, when climate-related floods caused $30 billion in damage to the country’s economy.

“But the flood has inundated several villages in my own district of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province,” Leghari said. “The floods have affected the farmers and my own land has been submerged again.”

Architect Wasim Ehsan also said Pakistan is still not prepared for a situation like 2022, mainly because people ignore building laws while building houses and even hotels in urban and rural areas.

He said the 2022 floods had caused damage in the northwest because people had even built houses and hotels after slightly diverting a river. “That is the reason why a hotel was destroyed by the Swat river in 2022,” he said.

Saad Edhi, an official with the country’s largest emergency services agency, also said that based on his previous experience in leading relief operations, he could say that Pakistan could suffer damage if floods like those in 2022 occurred.