By: Anna Luo

This year’s monsoon season in Pakistan is particularly brutal due to global warming and poor governmental planning.

According to Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, the rains this year have been 87 percent heavier than the average downpour. She also suggests the country should prepare for more flash floods and damage to infrastructure as its glaciers continue to melt at an accelerated pace.

As citizens struggle through the monsoon season, many complain about the lack of government support. The New York Times writers Zia ur-Rehman, Christina Goldbaum and Salman Masood report that “Even before the rains flooded Karachi, the city was already in shambles, with roads crumbling and slums expanding, and was deprived of basic government services although it provides Pakistan with about 40 percent of its revenue.”

The Karachi administrator Murtaza Wahab pointed to the outdated drainage and sewerage system as the main cause of flooding. However, he also highlighted the government funded efforts to clear clogged drains, claiming it improved the situation.

Despite these efforts, the flooding is still a major problem. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, nearly 10,000 people have died due to climate-related disasters and the country has lost approximately $4 billion in the last two decades. So far, at least 31 people have died in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, this year.

Traders, civilians, and politicians alike have all voiced their frustrations. Fazal Ali, an accountant who lives in a military-administered housing society, described how he was forced to move to a private hotel after his house was flooded. According to him, “The government has learned no lessons from past disasters,” explaining that this has already happened two years ago.

Hakeem Shah, a leader of Karachi’s traders, described this as a “complete incompetence of the government,” and stated that “the government should compensate the traders, who are already suffering from inflation.”

A nearly $14 million financial package that targets the restoration of infrastructure in Karachi was announced in 2020. Establishments near drainage systems were taken down and a garbage cleaning campaign was started. However, Pakistan is still seeing minimal improvement.

Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/asia/pakistan-monsoon-floods.html