The recent devastating floods in the aftermath of an intense and irregular precipitation pattern, which the experts and scientific community view as signs of climate change across Gilgit-Baltistan, KPK and Azad Kashmir in Pakistan and in the Himalayan regions of India like Uttara khand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Indian Kashmir. The excessive and intense rain caused due to a cloud burst brings intense and heavy rain, est. over 100 mm (4 inches) in an hour over a small geographical scope.

“In a single day, over 90 floods struck Gilgit-Baltistan, washing away homes, bridges, and power houses.”

The warm monsoon winds, loaded with moisture coming from the east, when they reach the northern mountains and come in contact with warm monsoon winds, cause condensation, which then generates sudden and intense rain. Buner in KPK, Pakistan, which is located along the Hindu Kush affected due to a cloud burst, as in less than one hour, around 150 mm of rain fell, which, within a very small time, turned the valleys into debris and brought devastation in the form of floods across all lengths and breadth. As a result, over 200 people died in Buner only.

Gilgit Baltistan, nestled into the heart of Karakoram-Himalaya-Hindukush (HKH), which is again an ecologically very significant as well as sensitive, hit hard by cloud bursts and Glacier lakes outburst floods like in Burg e Nullah, Rgayul and Sadpara valley in Skardu and Kondos, Haldi, Abadhan valley in Ghance district, where river flooding, flash floods due to cloud burst brought destructions to people’s belongings, cutting forest and soil, and forced communities to displaced to an uncertain destinations and future with little or no hope to get support or resume normal lives.

Critical Public and militarily significant infrastructures like the Stake Bridge and Baghicha Bridge on the Juglot Skardu Road were severely affected, leaving the Baltistan division and border areas in the North disconnected with the rest of GB and Pakistan by land for over 6 days. With the echoes and news of roadblocks and destruction brought by floods and landslides, local markets experience demand and supply gaps to an extent that local communities spend those testing times in search of food, fuel, and medicines, where patients in health units beg for life as medicines and electricity remain suspended for the uncertain times.

Local media reports that in a single day, over 90 floods, 40 locations were severely affected by floods across GB, during which 27 lives were lost, power houses, bridges, homes and water channels were washed away in the recent floods. Chief Minister GB estimated over 18 billion PKR economic loss and damages to GB due to floods in recent times, also the CM himself admitted their lack of budgetary planning and proper distribution of funds for vulnerable sectors like the environmental sector. The GB government for the fiscal year 2025-26 allocated 1.3 billion for floods in GB; in contrast, the reality was totally different on the ground. GB local govt turns a blind eye and has poor planning whenever the region, which is a climate-fragile region in the world, is hit hard by even low-intensity hydro meteorological hazards.

“The GB government turns a blind eye to its climate fragility, with poor planning and budgetary negligence.”

While I was reading an opinion in Dawn, written by Saeed Ahmed, an author and economist, who writes that the development culture in Pakistan features showy actions rather than real results. The reflections of such are clear from the crisis and destruction in GB, where every flood accelerates government press releases and big promises with no real results on the ground, just a public and media attention-seeker tactic.

In 2022, floods that had caused at least 27 deaths in Ghizer district alone in GB and over 300,000 people across GB were affected. Incidents and reports of GLOFs, flash floods are on the surge in GB by each passing hour and day. The latest GLOF event reported from the Rwashan Saro Nullah in Ghizer where a glacial lake burst swept away almost the entire valley, and the situation got intense by the flood blocked the Ghizer river passing through the valley, creating fear and concern among locals.

The climate actions and policies at the local level are at a standstill with little focus by the government to tackle pressing threats from climate change, and there is a dire need to make the government wake up from deep slumber and shift their focus and energy toward adaptation, mitigation and resilience efforts. With no interest in climate actions and policies at the local level, any little or too much support from either the Federal government or other sources will not do its work unless the GB government, with the fullest consent and integration of local communities, pursues strategic, scientific and traditional solutions to prevailing climate change.

Gilgit-Baltistan climate action roadmaps are enshrined in the Gilgit-Baltistan Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan 2017 and 2023; however, the action plans lack strategic and traditional knowledge integration into climate actions and policies, with no focus on climate finance and there is a need to address Pakistan’s water security on which entire Pakistan’s food security relies are under threat from accelerated glacier retreat in the north of Pakistan which again creates a chasm between federal government and local government.

“Without integrating local communities into adaptation, climate plans remain ineffective.”

There is a dire and timely need for a coordinated action plan at the federal and local levels of policy and actions. Excessive and large-scale deforestation and irresponsible planning regarding economic practices, energy, urban transportation, town planning, population growth, food security, health, and water security further intensify the vulnerabilities. Adapt the latest technology for monitoring the glacial lakes, and even glacier melting data should be kept under a high monitoring system to evaluate the risks associated with glacier melt-down.

According to a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact says that adaptation other than structural flood defences has reduced economic losses from flooding by 63% and fatalities by 52% since 1950 in Europe. Without adapting to climate change and creating real impacts on the ground, just to hold hour-long press talks, briefings, or expressing condolences in post-disaster are an insult to humanity and leave a big question mark on the government’s preparedness and adaptation strategies.

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.