Report Finds Climate Change Amplifies Pakistan’s Monsoon Floods

(MENAFN) A new scientific analysis reveals that climate change significantly amplified the torrential monsoon rains responsible for this summer’s devastating floods across Pakistan, worsening the crisis in vulnerable urban communities.

Since June 26, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reports at least 303 fatalities linked to rain-related incidents, including 142 children. The majority of deaths occurred when fragile homes made from mud and rice husk collapsed in flood-prone informal settlements near rivers and drainage basins.

The World Weather Attribution group—a global academic consortium specializing in extreme weather studies—investigated how human-induced climate change affected rainfall intensity and frequency in Pakistan.

Severe flooding struck regions in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, with major urban centers such as Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Faisalabad among the hardest hit.

On July 17, Rawalpindi recorded an extraordinary 230 millimeters (9 inches) of rain in under 24 hours, overwhelming drainage infrastructure and triggering widespread evacuations.

The NDMA further reports 727 injuries—including 242 children—and extensive damage to infrastructure: 1,693 homes, 449 kilometers (279 miles) of roads, and 105 bridges have been impacted. Additionally, around 428 livestock were lost.

To quantify the role of human-driven global warming in this disaster, scientists from Pakistan, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and the US applied peer-reviewed event attribution methodologies.

Their findings reveal that the 30-day peak rainfall in the affected area is roughly 22% more intense than it would have been without the 1.3°C rise in temperatures driven by fossil fuel emissions and deforestation.

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