Valleys and villages in Pakistan’s northern province of KP and GB have been battered by this year’s monsoon torrential rains, flash flooding, and cloud burst phenomenon. According to estimates by various UN agencies, Pakistan has lost close to 800 lives, while more than 900 have been recovered from injuries caused due to these natural calamities. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bears the heaviest toll where according to authorities now 400 fatalities are confirmed along with 193 injuries in various towns and villages.
“In Buner and Swabi, entire villages vanished in flash flooding and more than 1,300 houses were washed away.”
In Buner and Swabi, entire villages vanished in flash flooding and so far, it has been confirmed that more than 1300 houses have been washed away by raging flash floods. As Monsoon has entered its 8th spell of rains this year, the forecast of floods for the entire country is alarming. On 25th August 2025, India contacted Pakistan through the Indus Water Treaty channel to inform about the release of excessive water in the Ravi and Sutlej rivers. The Met department has warned about high and very high floods in the Indus, Ravi and Sutlej along with more rainfall in the coming days.
This level of devastation recalls the historic floods of 2022 when Pakistan suffered an unprecedented level of loss of lives and material. That year, more than 1700 souls perished all over the country, the national economy took a hit of around 40 billion USD, and at one point, one third of the country’s land mass was underwater. This trend of intense climate change-induced floods at a rapid frequency has alarmed the experts, who believe that the trend is showing a worsening trajectory.
As the overall climate temperature is rising globally, Pakistan will witness similar floods at more rapid intervals, perhaps every year from now on. Reason is simple: higher temperatures mean warmer air that holds more moisture, causing intense downpours instead of gentle monsoons. Consequently, each cycle of floods raises questions about how Pakistan manages floods in rivers and elsewhere.
The current pace and scale of floods demand a far more holistic response from the state instead of traditional search and rescue-based relief operations and rebuilding destroyed homes only to be destroyed again next year!
In this dire situation, Pakistan needs to develop a complete Integrated Flood Management (IFM) system where flood water is treated as a part of the country’s water system by converting it into a resource instead of a destructive force. This is achieved through careful planning, innovative engineering ideas, preservation of nature, and community participation in a coherent action plan.
“The current pace and scale of floods demands a holistic response instead of search-and-rescue alone.”
In simple terms, the idea of IFM is to bring all stakeholders on board in a long-term plan aimed at maximizing benefits, such as utilizing floodplains to minimize loss of life and property. IFM is not an abstract concept but a proven Integrated Water Resource Management approach developed by the World Meteorological Organization and Global Water Partnership some two decades ago.
In its implementation, IFM combines new and old tools to mitigate flood-related crises. From building traditional engineering flood control mechanisms like dams, embankments and diversion channels etc. to satellite based zoning and risk mapping to preserving upstream forests and wetlands to absorb rains to creating green parks with retention ponds in urban areas are all put to work in IFM in an integrated way where one action supports the other and collectively all actions make a considerable difference in overall flood water management.
For example, a dam’s spillway might feed a designated floodplain or wetland that the local community may have set aside. Here, engineering, community, and planning every aspect will come together to achieve a single goal of managing flood water. But it does end here; an effective IFM must have a credible early warning and alarm system capable of using all communication channels (SMS, Sirens, Radio announcements, TV bulletins, even mosque loudspeakers), community knowledge, and administrative measures to make emergency evacuations. Most importantly, policymakers must have a full understanding of climate resilience and sustainability, being the strategic goals of IFM.
As mentioned earlier, IFM is not a native concept but a well-established flood mitigation strategy that has been implemented at multiple places across the globe. The Netherlands, for example, while adapting IFM, has realized that floods are inevitable. Hence, modern water engineering there includes projects of widening of floodplains, lowering agricultural land, turning it into storage basins, along with building ever-higher dikes, which is part of traditional mechanisms. Such nature-driven flood water management strategies have been implemented in South Asia as well.
For example, in Bangladesh, communities have been educated about floods and the value of early warning. Now, communities there are an active part of national flood mitigation efforts as they build small embankments around villages, record and share flood data with authorities and other villages, and manage local early warning through radio, mobile, or mosques’ loudspeakers. AS per the UN’s Associated Program on Flood Management, various pilot IFM projects are active in various stages in 18 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. Under this UN program, officials from 130 countries have been trained, including Pakistan.
In essence, IFM posits on a simple fact that engineering alone can’t fully mitigate floods, societies and communities must play a role with the state making “room” for policy changes to adapt IFM for a resilient climate in any country, and Pakistan is no exception in this regard.
“IFM integrates dams, wetlands, floodplains, and community networks into one coherent plan.”
The biggest challenge in forming an IFM model for Pakistan is weak institutional integration. Pakistan has disaster management agencies both at the federal and provincial levels: NDMA and PDMA. Pakistan Meteorological Department offers weather service, forecasting, etc., while widespread mobile networks, mosques, and radio services can provide means for early warning. Unfortunately, for Pakistan, all these entities are fighting their own climate-resilience wars, and there is no integrated thought process.
This is why Pakistan can’t even have a reliable early warning system that can save lives. Experts believe Pakistan’s flood warning systems remain disconnected from the ground and are not capable of monitoring in real-time. The biggest problem with Pakistan’s existing early warning systems is that they include entire provinces or divisions in their forecast and warning instead of being able to identify specific areas, valleys or villages so that administration and communities can play their role effectively. The next challenge is a lack of knowledge among locals, particularly in remote areas, as they often don’t know how and react to a flood warning and where to take shelter.
Pakistan cannot import an IFM plan; instead, local flood management requires a homegrown strategy with aims and goals according to our specific requirements and circumstances. It can begin with incorporating water planning at all levels. Pakistan’s IFM must include building larger dams to drilling large recharge wells in city parks.
Such wells not only store millions of gallons of water, which raises the water table, but also reduce the flood’s strength. One such well was dug in Islamabad in 2022, and now many more are in planning. Only in 2024, 50 such wells were built, solving urban flooding issues while addressing the depletion of the groundwater level simultaneously. Building rainwater harvesting tanks in open areas and permeable pavements, etc., must be part of urban planning.
At the policy level, Pakistan needs to change the way different types of water are regulated by different agencies. Stormwater, rivers, canals, ground groundwater are all in the exclusive domain of various agencies at national and provincial levels. Flood water may remain unattended. This creates impediments in collecting data, coordination, and data-driven decision-making.
On the community side, Nepal can offer a learning experience where village committees’ actions have prevented any flood-related deaths. Villagers are empowered to blast sirens, text phone alerts, and use mosque loudspeakers for emergencies. Pakistan should codify similar community-based warning networks and evacuation drills, so every citizen knows when and where to flee.
Finally, Pakistan requires new building laws on river banks construction. Respecting floodplains is the key here. Re-settlement of any construction that was previously done in a riverbed must be done at some other place. Similarly, upstream forests must be preserved to reduce the risk of mountains breaking off or mudslides on roads in rainy seasons.
“Building infrastructure each year for it to be destroyed in the next monsoon can’t be continued.”
IFM approach will demand both these actions taken as part of an overall water resource management plan. Encouraging sign is that Pakistan’s existing National Flood Protection Plan (2015-2025) seeks climate-smart modelling and nature-based solutions which must be implemented under a well-crafted IFM model with short-, mid- and long-term goals for each aspect clearly defined.
The lesson to be learned from the floods of 2025 is clear: Pakistan needs to integrate traditional flood management tactics with data-driven, community-based based innovative measures as are being taken by many countries like the Netherlands, Nepal and Bangladesh. Building infrastructure for one year for it to be destroyed in the next monsoon can’t continue. Pakistan needs integration of nation-wide climate resilience driven under a well-drafted IFM model combining engineering, administrative, nature-based, and community-driven solutions in a way that all these actions support one objective only; to manage flood water as a resource, not as a curse!
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.
