MISERY has become permanent: another year when relentless rains battered parts of the country, wrecking rural and urban settlements and infrastructure. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, six weeks of rainfall have claimed over 150 lives in Pakistan; the most fatalities were recorded in Punjab, KP and Balochistan. Since the onset of the monsoon, over 1,500 homes have been damaged, record-breaking downpour has inundated Lahore and much of Punjab, and flash floods have washed away road connectivity in KP and Gilgit-Baltistan, affecting essential services. Recently, landslides and flash floods innorthern and eastern Balochistan caused widespread havoc, including flooding after a dam was breached. All this has happened despite warnings from disaster agencies and years of climate change forecasts. The alarm continues to be raised, with more heavy showers predicted to hit parts of the country this month.

So what has the NDMA managed? The reality is that even the 2022 climate calamity failed to instil fear or empathy in the disaster authorities; their criminal unpreparedness in tackling emergencies is taking lives and destroying an already ramshackle infrastructure. Other projects are in the same boat. The Competitive and Livable City of Karachi, a World Bank-fundedprogramme, faces criticism over the quality of its renovated projects, as at least 14 Karachi roads were swept away in moderate rains. The provincial administration,a day after major road links collapsed, central roads were left pitted and sewers spilt over into hutments, abdicated all responsibility through a statement from Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani: “Our infrastructure is not capable of handling heavy rains”. Extreme weather events cannot be wished away. Rulers owe their citizens safety and services. Proposals and policies on flood mapping, rainwater storage, green cover, early forecast, evacuation and response, and climate-resilient structures must be implemented quickly. People are not perishable goods.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024