THE warning from the disaster management and weather authorities that a new monsoon spell could trigger urban flooding in major cities across Punjab and Sindh is yet another reminder of how poorly prepared our cities are for heavy rainfall.
Cities from Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan in Punjab, to Hyderabad, Umerkot and Tando Allahyar in Sindh, have been flagged for urban flooding. This is not unusual during the monsoons. However, what makes this year’s warning worth pausing on is the Met Office’s forecast of below normal rainfall this year. Still, less rainfall will not eliminate the risk of flooded cities if a burst of rain arrives faster than the ground and drains can carry it away. This says more about the state of our cities than about the weather.
The problem of urban flooding in Pakistan is no longer limited to low-lying neighbourhoods. It has become a structural feature of how the country has grown and urban centres have developed. Unplanned construction has taken place over drainage channels and wetlands that once absorbed rain. Waterways have been encroached upon, storm-water systems are built for outdated rainfall patterns, and drains are choked with solid waste that no longer has any place to go.
The response is reactive across the provinces. Drains are cleared only when the rain starts to fall; pumps arrive after roads are under water; and warnings are issued, repeated, then forgotten until the next spell. This is crisis management dressed up as preparedness. Most Pakistani cities have no comprehensive flood-risk maps, no functioning drainage master plans, and no clear chain of command for who acts first as the water rises. Drainage, roads, water supply and disaster response sit in separate departments that rarely coordinate before a flood and mostly trade blame after one.
Climate change has broken the old planning assumptions. Cities now need infrastructure built for short, intense downpours capable of overwhelming drains within minutes, not the gradual rainfall patterns those systems were designed around decades ago. Every new road, housing scheme or commercial project should be assessed for how it disrupts the natural water flow before approval, not after the damage becomes visible. Existing drains need redesigning and expanding to match current rainfall intensity, rather than being patched up just before the monsoon.
Pakistan cannot control how much rain falls. But it can control the extent to which the rain turns into a disaster. The recent warning is not a new problem; each year, governments assure the public that they are ready for the rains. Unfortunately, the very first intense downpour exposes their claims. What the country needs is sustained investment in drainage infrastructure and local governments to maintain it between the monsoons, not just during the rainy season.
Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026
