KEY POINTS
- Monsoon death toll crosses 900, with over 4.1 million people affected
- Ongoing tenth spell since June 25 makes it longest, most intense season in decades.
- Dangerously high flood in Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab rivers, prompts mass evacuations.
- NDMA/PDMAs continue large-scale rescue and relief operations
ISLAMABAD: More than 900 people have been killed since the onset of the monsoon in late June, officials said on Tuesday, as Pakistan reels from an unusually long and intense season that has entered its tenth spell with rivers in Punjab and Sindh swollen to dangerous levels.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) confirmed the toll and said over 1.8 million people in Punjab alone have been displaced, with more than 4.1 million affected nationwide.
In its latest advisory, the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) reported that the Sutlej at Ganda Singh Wala was flowing at 311,000 cusecs, categorised as “extremely high flood,” while the Chenab at Trimmu Headworks was running at 543,000 cusecs.
The Ravi at Balloki and Shahdara was also in high flood, forcing fresh evacuations from vulnerable villages.
“This is now the tenth monsoon spell since June 25,” a Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) official told reporters.
“The season began almost three weeks early and continues with unusual persistence.” The PMD forecast widespread rain and thundershowers in Sindh, South Punjab, and parts of Balochistan throughout this week, with risk of flash floods in Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Dadu and Jamshoro districts.
The spell-by-spell account underscores the extraordinary nature of this year’s rains. The first burst arrived on June 25, inundating northern valleys well before the traditional July 16 start of the season.
By early July, Karachi and lower Sindh were underwater, while mid-July storms drenched Punjab, with Chakwal recording 423 millimetres in a single day, the heaviest in decades. In late July, successive spells brought flooding to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and northeast Punjab.
From August 5 to 9, the sixth spell raised river levels dangerously, followed by catastrophic mid-August flash floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where cloudbursts in Swat and Buner killed scores.
The eighth spell, running from August 20 to the end of the month, produced the worst riverine flooding in Punjab since 1988, submerging over 8,400 villages and affecting more than five million people.
The ninth spell carried the flood surge into Sindh, triggering the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents from low-lying areas.
The current, tenth spell, unfolding in early September, has kept much of central and southern Pakistan on alert.
On Sunday night alone, more than 122,000 people were evacuated from Jalalpur Pirwala in eastern Punjab, with authorities warning of “extremely high flooding” in the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab by September 9.
NDMA officials said more than 500 medical camps have been set up in Punjab, treating nearly 175,000 people, while rescue teams are continuously evacuating families to safer ground.
Relief operations are also underway in Sindh, where the Indus at Guddu Barrage is expected to reach high to very-high flood levels within 24 hours.
Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik has previously cautioned that future monsoons are likely to intensify further, warning that next year’s rains could be up to 30 per cent stronger, begin earlier and last longer.
Officials say Pakistan’s traditional monsoon window of July 16 to September 15 is being reshaped by climate change, with longer, more frequent, and more destructive wet spells now emerging as the new normal.
