[🇵🇰] Pakistan Flood Situation - Updates

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[H2]Four including two girls killed as another rain spell hits KP[/H2]
Dawn Report
April 20, 2024

A rescue official examines the debris of a house that collapsed in Bannu on Friday. (Right) Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road blocked by a landslide in Kawai area of Kaghan Valley. — Dawn

PESHAWAR: Four persons, including two minor girls, were killed and eight others injured in separate incidents in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as another spell of heavy rain started lashing the province on Friday.

A Khal police station official said a house collapsed in Toormang area of Lower Dir due to heavy rain, killing an 11-year-old girl. The deceased was staying as guest in the house.
Separately, Amir Mohammad, a resident of Toormang, also informed the Khall police his son, Hidayatullah had been missing for last three days. He said his son had gone to a nearby stream to collect firewood on Tuesday, but did not return. He said it seemed his son had drowned in the flooded stream.

Besides, heavy rain continued to lash Upper and Lower Dir districts, disrupting traffic on the main Timergara-Peshawar Road on Friday evening due to flood in Shamshi Khan Khwar. The traffic was diverted to the Talash Bypass Road, but it also remained blocked due to mud brought on by flash floods.

Landslide blocks MNJ Road, stranding passengers for hours

Meanwhile, Lower Dir deputy commissioner Wasil Khan imposed ban on collection of firewood and gathering on the banks of Panjkora River.

Separately, a woman was injured in roof collapse incident in Hasilkhan Jafer area of Bannu district as light rain continued to lash Lakki Marwat and Bannu on Thursday.

A team of Rescue 1122 rushed to the locality and shifted the woman to the District Headquarters Hospital.

A rescue official told Dawn that a minor girl was killed and a woman was injured in a roof collapse incident in Khyber tribal district.

Similarly, another person died and three others injured in Bajaur district.

Two persons were injured in roof collapse incident in Charsadda.

Heavy rain continued to batter the provincial capital on Friday, inundating roads and low-lying areas.

Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar, in a statement said heavy rain led to increased pressure on city's drainage system. It said due to limited capacity, water overflowed drains and accumulated on roads.

The civic agency said its staff was working round the clock to open drains clogged with polythene bags and solid waste and was monitoring the hotspots across the city.

Peshawar Electric Supply Company, in a statement said the rain affected power supply in several parts of the province.

It said 124 feeders tripped due to heavy rains, including 48 in Peshawar, 22 in Khyber and 12 in Swat circles. The power utility said its staff was working to restore power supply to the affected areas.

A landslide triggered by heavy downpour on Friday blocked the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road to traffic in Kawai area of Kaghan Valley.

Heavy boulders detached from a mountain rolled down on the road, blocking it to traffic.
A local told reporters that following the landslide traffic remained blocked, stranding passengers for over two hours.

The rain, which started earlier this week, continued to lash Mansehra, Torghar, Kolai-Palas, Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan, swelling Kunhar, Indus and Siren rivers.

Residents living along the riverbanks were directed to move to safer places.

The continued rains caused severe cold in the Hazara division.

The Met Department said during past 24 hours provincial capital received 44mm of rain, Cherat 70mm, Malam Jabba 58mm, Upper Dir 49mm, Lower Dir 34mm, Takht Bhai 35mm, Drosh, Dera Ismail Khan 24mm, Patan 15mm, Parachinar 13mm, Bannu 12mm and Balakot 8mm of rain.

Besides, the Met department also predicted more rain with snowfall over mountains in Chitral, Dir, Swat, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Kohistan, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Kurram, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Waziristan, Tank, Karak and Dera Ismail Khan on Friday night and Saturday.

On the other hand, Provincial Disaster Management Authority said on Friday the rain spell from April 12-18 resulted into deaths of 36 persons and injuries to 46 others.
PDMA said 20 of the deceased were children.

Similarly, a total of 2,391 houses were damaged.

In Swat, a woman was electrocuted in Ghwari Masta area of Fizagat as intermittent rain persisted throughout the day. She was identified as Malia. The woman got an electric shock while putting fodder to cattle in her house. She was immediately transported to Saidu Sharif Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Snowfall also lashed the higher places.

Due to rise in water level in the Swat River and streams, deputy commissioner Dr Mohammad Qasim Khan banned people from going near them.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2024

 

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[H2]Twin cities to receive more rains, landslides predicted in Murree[/H2]
Wasa declares emergency, staff deputed to drain out water from Murree Road, Committee Chowk underpass.

 

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[H3]Heavy rains paralyse life in Hazara division[/H3]
Flash floods have also breached defences, entered homes and caused widespread destruction.

Our Correspondent
April 22, 2024

PHOTO: EXPRESS

ABBOTTABAD: During the second three days of continuous torrential rain spell in Hazara division, life has been paralysed, severing many road connections and triggering landslides that have blocked several roads, including the Karakoram Highway (KKH) in Kohistan.

According to details, the persistent heavy downpours across Hazara division, including Haripur, Abbottabad city, Galyat, Kaghan, Naran, Kohistan, Battagram and Thandyani have resulted in numerous road blockages due to landslides.

Flash floods have also breached defences, entered homes and caused widespread destruction.

In Havelian, Abbottabad, Qalandar Abad and Mansehra, the KKH has been blocked at multiple points by flash floods, leaving thousands of vehicles stranded in the water.

Heavy rain, coupled with thunder and hailstorms, has caused significant damage to electricity transmission lines and telecommunication systems across most parts of the Hazara division. Several link roads throughout the division have been cut off due to flash floods and landslides.

In Abbottabad city, once again flash floods, swept away furniture and household items in various parts of the city. Key roads such as KKH, Main Murree Road, Kakul Road, Mandian, Supply Bazaar and Link Road Abbottabad have turned into virtual cesspools.

Numerous thoroughfares and connecting roads in Galyat, Thandiani, Mansehra, Battagram and the Kaghan Valley have been destroyed by heavy rain, landslides, and flash floods.

In Mansehra, structural collapses and other incidents triggered by windstorms and heavy rain have been reported.

 

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A general view of the submerged houses, following rains and floods during the monsoon season, in Dera Allah Yar, Jafferabad, Pakistan August 30, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS

[H3]Future-proofing Pakistan's development pathways: From recovery to resilience[/H3]
Imagine a Pak that not only survives crises but thrives despite them; where floods don't devastate but spark solutions

Kanni Wignaraja
April 22, 2024

Pakistan knows crisis and adversity. Yet, recent years have seen an intensity in the country's multidimensional socio-economic and climatic challenges: climate and environmental shocks as witnessed in the 2022 floods, economic pressures with an increased debt overhang, a challenging security landscape, all happening within a context of a political transition.

Being among the 10 countries most affected by climate change (while contributing less than one per cent to greenhouse gas emissions), the impact of these pressure points will not diminish easily.

Now, imagine a Pakistan that not only survives crises but thrives despite them. A nation where, for instance, floods don't devastate livelihoods but spark innovative solutions instead. This isn't a distant dream, but a very real possibility.

The key lies in building up resilience. This may be a somewhat overused term, so what would it take? The choice to invest more intentionally in prevention and preparedness, even amidst fiscal constraints, shift policies and capabilities from reactive measures towards proactive solutions. It calls for more coordinated and integrated approaches, given the interconnected nature of the world's contemporary crises. This takes leadership that persists to reform the public sector as well as the private sector, and to work across vertical management lines and traditional sector spaces. The cost of limited action, or worse still, inaction, is staggering. The 2022 floods caused $30 billion in damage and pushed nearly nine million people into poverty. Investing in resilience can break this cycle.

There is no easy way forward, and no policymaker, business nor civil society organiser expects one. The 2024 UNDP Human Development Report ranks Pakistan 164th out of 193 countries in the 'low development' category on the Human Development Index, a key metric assessing a nation's progress in improving its citizens' well-being. The country lags behind most of its South Asian peers on some critical development measures, such as gender equality, multidimensional poverty, inequality and environmental sustainability. With national forecasts projecting a modest growth outlook, and carrying a heavy debt burden, it is not a leap to say that Pakistan's current challenges have derailed its own SDG ambitions.

With less than six years left to 2030, UNDP's Integrated SDG Insights Report 2023 for Pakistan shows that the country is on track to achieve 35 out of 169 SDG targets. With an annual SDG financing gap of US$3.72 billion, Pakistan would need to spend 16 per cent of its annual GDP to achieve all the SDGs by 2030.

To accelerate SDG progress by 2030, the country would need to consider targeted high-intensity economic reforms and accelerator pathways, some of which are already underway. Expanding the tax revenue base, and preventing tax avoidance and leakages is one path. Another is long-term sustainable and efficient debt management through innovative financing solutions, such as debt swaps, and reducing the debt service burden that is currently untenable. Pakistan spends more on debt servicing each year than it does on public health and education today. A third, is expanding a fair playing field for private sector investments to thrive. A competitively diverse base of businesses will be critical to creating new jobs, expanding tech usage and digital access, and deepening the industrial and services base for a more inclusive progress. And finally, as Pakistan is doing, to urge global attention to its climate action needs with more affordable climate finance. These pathways cannot take off and thrive without the accompanying requisite governance reforms.

Pakistan's lift out of the 'low-income country' category, taking along almost 250 million people, is no doubt a difficult one, but the moment to do so is now. A newly elected government has a unique opportunity to rewrite Pakistan's narrative and rally international partners in the process of moving from recovery to resilience. Following the 2022 floods, the international community mobilised in solidarity with Pakistan, pledging nearly $11 billion (with close to 70 per cent of that amount received) for the implementation of a national Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF). This, coupled with a national economic recovery plan, provides a sound basis for furthering reforms and implementing development actions.

UNDP Pakistan and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), with other development actors and partners in Pakistan, have been engaged in such initiatives, which must build on a solid, hopefully irreversible, commitment to reforms as the foundation for a future-proof Pakistan. These collective efforts include:

- Ensuring that institutional capabilities, particularly at sub-national levels, are as resilient as the people they serve in the face of inevitable reoccurring crises. This includes investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, and early warning systems, and expanding the skills and livelihoods base in productive sectors.

- Economic reforms that are people-centred, including those on taxation, sustainable debt management, and opening up new private sector investments. A concrete application is investments in digital transformation of public services and local businesses, to reach more people otherwise left behind.

- Changing the development financing mix for the future. UNDP's SDG Investment and Climate Finance Facility has identified bankable projects worth $8.8 billion that look ahead and are quality-assured, as a springboard for sustainable growth. Along with JS Bank, we are testing a model of co-investing in micro and small businesses, with blended financing, for environmentally sustainable economic opportunities.

The Pakistan 2024 National Human Development Report "Doing Digital for Development", to be launched this week, focuses on digital transformation, as one way to connect the recovery-to-resilience dots and strengthen the rebound capabilities of individuals, communities and the institutions that serve them. For a country where more than half of the population (54.3 per cent) still do not have access to the internet, digital inclusion and transformation will be key to accelerating the country's path to sustainable development. It can also bring the other half of the population in and improve Pakistan's overall HDI ranking.

Strong political will behind the necessary policy and governance reforms will pave the way. People's ability to innovate, connect and strive for hope and a better future for themselves and their children will do the rest. UNDP accompanies Pakistan on this journey in the search and application of bold new pathways to progress, where everyone thrives and not just survives.

 

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[H2]Death toll reaches 22 in Balochistan amid heavy rain[/H2]
Saleem Shahid
April 28, 2024

QUETTA: Heavy rains, thunderstorms, and hailstones continued to lash various districts of Balochistan, including its capital, on Saturday, pushing the death toll to 22.

The Quetta valley received heavy rain, thunderstorms, and hailstones throughout the day with short intervals, resulting in flooding of the main roads and streets.

Numerous houses were washed away in the flash floods that also caused massive traffic blockade in different areas.

A huge tanker carrying liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from Iran overturned and fell into a seasonal stream as floodwater submerged parts of the Quetta-Taftan highway in Noshki district. The flash flood pushed the tanker away from the main highway, causing the driver to lose control, with the result that it steered into the stream. However, the driver and other people in the vehicle managed to flee to safety.

Downpour worsens flood risks in province; main roads submerged in Quetta

Bolan River, Nari Gaj-Mula River, and other seasonal rivers were carrying heavy floodwater as their catchment areas were also receiving rains.

Temperature dropped in Ziarat, Quetta, Kalat, Kan Mehtarzai, Pishin, and some other areas of northern Balochistan, forcing people to turn on their gas heaters to keep their houses warm and to wear warm clothes.

Ziarat, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Qila Saifullah, Zhob, Sherani, Khanozai, Harnai, Sibi, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Jhal Magsi, Dera Murad Jamali, Kharan, Chagai, Noshki, Washuk, Chaman, Mach, and many other areas also received heavy showers.

The provincial capital, which was badly affected during the last two spells of rains, once again witnessed urban flooding. The overnight heavy rain had caused massive destruction not only in low-lying localities but also in main parts of Quetta.

Almost all roads in the main city, including Jinnah Road, Kandahari Bazaar, Liaquat Road, Prince Road, Zarghoon Road, Sirki Road, and Gawalmandi, were submerged by knee-deep rainwater.

Meanwhile, the meteorological department has predicted more rains with thunderstorms and lightning in different areas of Balochistan, including Quetta.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2024

 

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[H3]At least 143 killed in Pakistan's unusually heavy April rains[/H3]

• Country see a rainfall increase of 164% above normal levels in April, says MET spokesperson

A general view of an overflowing Jhelum River after heavy rainfall in Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir on April 29, 2024. Photo: AFP

AFP
April 30, 2024

ISLAMABAD: At least 143 people died in Pakistan from lightning strikes and other storm-related incidents in April, with the country receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, officials said Tuesday.

April brought flash floods, landslides and inclement weather that caused houses to collapse in some areas and destroyed crops in others.

Pakistan saw a rainfall "increase of 164 percent above the normal levels in April, which is very unusual", said Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesperson for the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

"We've observed these erratic weather patterns as a direct result of climate change," he told AFP.

Pakistan is increasingly vulnerable to unpredictable weather, as well as often-destructive monsoon rains that usually arrive in July.

The largest death toll for April was in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 83 people died, including 38 children, and where more than 3,500 homes have been damaged.

"The fatalities resulted from roof collapse and landslide incidents," Anwar Shahzad, spokesman for the province's disaster management authority, told AFP on Tuesday.

In some northern parts of Punjab, the country's most populous province, harvests of wheat, a staple food, were spoiled by hailstorms.

Environmental expert Maryam Shabbir Abbasi told AFP that overall weather patterns had shifted by "about a month and a half, and we should shift our calendars for the agriculture sector accordingly to avoid damages caused by unprecedented rainfall".

Officials earlier this month said several people, including farmers harvesting wheat, were killed by lightning in Punjab, and that a total of 21 people were killed in different rain-related incidents.

Another 21 deaths were reported in Balochistan province in April, including seven people who were struck by lightning, with rain disrupting life in some districts and causing school closures.

In parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, 14 people were killed, and at least four were killed in road accidents linked to floods in southern Sindh province.

In the summer of 2022, a third of Pakistan was submerged by unprecedented monsoon rains that displaced millions of people and cost the country $30 billion in damages and economic losses, according to a World Bank estimate.

As several parts of the country were battered by heavy rains this month, Karachi, the largest city, experienced its hottest day of the year on Sunday, with temperatures soaring to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).