A heart-wrenching incident happened on 27 June 2025, 17 members of a single family were swept away in flash floods during a trip in a dry swat river, and unfortunately, a heavy flood hit them all, leaving no chance to escape. Next month, the same tragedy happened with a tourist van on 21 July 2025, a cloudburst triggered landslides with severe mudflow that hit the van, resulting in three deaths of a single family and one injury.

Between June and July, 279 deaths and 676 injuries have been reported nationwide, with multiple houses damaged in the capital and other provinces as well.

Monsoons are the seasonal weather patterns that bring prolonged rainfall every year due to a shift in the direction of winds. When these heavy rainfalls meet with poor planning and mismanagement by the concerned departments, it results in human crises. These crises include life threats, population displacement, a lack of healthy food, and infrastructure damage, with livestock animals also suffering.

The fact is well acknowledged that 60 to 70 percent of the annual rainfall of Pakistan happens during this monsoon season between July and August; ultimately, the mountainous regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit, and Kashmir suffer more by experiencing flash floods due to steep terrain. A high-speed water that encompasses river banks and directly affects the roads, infrastructure, and agricultural land.

This excessive overflow of water in all rivers and their tributaries affects all other provinces of Pakistan due to a poor drainage system and unplanned cities. Most importantly, excessive encroachment near riverbanks effectively disturbs the natural environment and increases vulnerability to floods.

When it comes to the irrigation system, it is an outdated system constructed before partition by the British, which needs to be redesigned according to the present era. New dams’ construction can effectively enhance the water storage capacity during the monsoon season to prevent overflow of water in rivers. It is important to talk about the Kalabagh dam construction, which has been pending since 1948, facing controversy among the provinces on the distribution of water.

It’s an urgent appeal to the political elites and concerned departments to negotiate and find a common ground to serve the larger interest of the state without affecting the normal distribution of Sindh water. However, Kalabagh dam can only be made functional during the flood situation, and it has a total gross capacity to store 7.9 million acre-feet, a significant capacity to avoid floods.

Kalabagh dam can only be made functional during the flood situation, and it has a total gross capacity to store 7.9 million acre-feet.

Government Policies to regulate NDMA and PDMA seem ineffective without any coordination and management strategies. Between June and July, 279 deaths and 676 injuries have been reported nationwide, with multiple houses damaged in the capital and other provinces as well.

This is an alarming situation and raises a serious question about the accountability of the stakeholders. After 2010, the 2022 flood should have been the last one, with 1939 deaths, with no proper public awareness and a lack of early warnings. Hence, a lack of timely rescue operations, poor disaster preparedness, and response leads to human crises on a large scale.

National Disaster Management Authority headquarters, with the approval of the Government of Pakistan, issued the Monsoon Contingency Plan 2025, in which they claimed that river encroachment and illegal buildings over river banks would be removed, which did not happen.  After the Swat incident, the stakeholders came into action just to hide their negligence and started an operation on encroachment, which was resisted by the locals. They argued that these buildings have been constructed since the 1990s onward, and we have NOC provided by the concerned authorities.

However, the question arises here whether the hotels and restaurant owners are powerful enough or the officers are corrupt, taking some money to let them construct illegally. Moreover, this 2025 plan suggested that regional-level apps will be made functional to enhance public awareness of disasters to minimize loss, but it remained ineffective.

Thousands of people moved towards the northern side for a picnic during the flood situation and suffered injuries, deaths, and vehicle damage. The other initiative regarding drone technology and small surveillance happened on a small scale after the disaster came just to support the rescue operations. It should be active before a disaster to calculate risk and then to block the sites for tourists which was more vulnerable to GLOFs, landsliding’s and flash floods.

According to PCRWR, over 750 sites are suitable for small dams, by which over 400 dams have been constructed, but a few are still non-functional due to bribery and corruption.

The government has failed to manage the monsoon this year too, even if they mentioned in their contingency plan 2025, that we have learnt from our weaknesses in the 2022 floods. Now, it’s urgent to take the primary initiatives to stop monsoon contingency by constructing small dams. According to PCRWR, over 750 sites are suitable for small dams, by which over 400 dams have been constructed by the Government, but a few are still non-functional due to bribery and corruption.

Secondly, the Government should introduce modern water storage techniques, including rainwater Harvesting systems (RHS), underground water tanks, and smart irrigation systems. Thirdly, local government should be involved as provincial or federal response often disconnected or delayed from local urgency.

The union councils should be trained for community awareness, cleaning of nullahs before monsoon, and public awareness as well, to tackle the contingency. The 2020 Karachi floods were reported as a lack of local governance led to clogged nullahs, overflowing sewers, and zero coordination between city and provincial bodies.

Pakistan, both demographically and geographically, is a vulnerable state to issues. This vulnerability should have compelled stakeholders to pay attention and update their policies to manage the water resource effectively. How many more deaths and financial loss is required to make the institutions work with sincerity?

Until the state observes the monsoon floods as a failure and negligence of the concerned departments and enforces strict penalties, Pakistan will continue to suffer preventable crises.

The urgent need is to construct a small dam, utilize modern water storage techniques with monitoring and reporting by local governments, and implement these measures before the monsoon, as part of a comprehensive effort to save the nation from disasters. Until the state observes the monsoon floods as a failure and negligence of the concerned departments and enforces strict penalties, Pakistan will continue to suffer preventable crises.

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.