The Monsoon season in Pakistan is now folklore and poetry but the development model of Pakistan has rendered the overall living standards of nearly every region unstable. Global warming may not induce floods directly, but the warmer atmosphere has started holding and dumping more water. Research by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that the rains were at least 40% more likely, and 10% more intense due to climate change, suggesting that rain falls more frequently as a result of global warming

Although it can be difficult to link one extreme event with climate change, but we must brace ourselves to face more intense and extreme hydro-meteorological events as result of changing climate. The unprecedented monsoon rains stretching from Gilgit Baltistan to Sindh have already created havoc in all regions of the country. The waters have made a living being vulnerable not because of the downpours, but primarily because we have encroached on the rivers, banks, and shoulders and blocked their natural passages. Long-term global climate change has increased the chances of intense precipitation, longer duration, and/or close repetition of precipitation which can trigger extreme floods. The hotter temperatures can also trigger more rain-on-snow events causing faster and earlier melting of snow and glaciers and resulting in more precipitation. The combination of rain and snow melting can aggravate the flooding effect in spring seasons. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) founded by the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Environment Programme to assess the science related to climate change in its comprehensive assessment of the physical science of climate change found that climate change has influenced several water-related variables that contribute to flood, which includes the melting of glaciers in Pakistan during the heat-wave of April-June 2022 causing an abnormal rise in the water levels of rivers, that had led to severe flooding saturating the water catchments.

The federal and provincial governments have been taking measures to mitigate the flood. A legally binding international treaty on climate change was adopted by 196 countries to limit global warming to well below 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial times. The federal government is looking for any disastrous environmental policy-making that must be reversed to fulfil the Paris agree ment. A billion trees tsunami project by the KPK government is another crucial step to holding, cleaning, and naturally, draining rainwater using an ecological approach. With the improved measures to mitigate floods, there is a need to massively increase the actions to avoid destructive floods – like 2010 and 2022 – in the country Pakistan is facing a shortfall in electricity production leading to a load shedding problem. Groundwater extraction through green energy will be an adaptive and mitigating measure to cope with climate change. This alternative energy source will not only save money but improve your productivity leading to reduce threats to the environment by carbon emission.

The conversion of the Monsoon season to Monster season in Pakistan has made it compulsory for the government to take the foremost measures. The first and most crucial step to be taken by the federal government is to expedite the construction of dams, that could help store the water in reservoirs preventing the risk of downstream flooding. As the dams could not be 100% effective in preventing floods, the federal government has to take appropriate steps for an improved flood warning system with advanced warning and pre-planning that can significantly reduce the impact of flooding, potentially saving more lives. Federal governments also need to follow the construction of new buildings with modifications to help them withstand floods. For each of the provinces, halting wetland drainage, reforestation of upstream areas, and restoration of damaged wetlands on the provincial level can significantly reduce the impact of climate change on flooding. Not only this, the provincial governments – more specifically those of Sindh and Baluchistan – need to look after the separation of the sewer system from the rainwater to improve water management, and improve the sewer system from damage. Apart from conventional measures like defence schemes, the focus needs to be diverted to more innovative solutions like flood resilience with concreting floors and replacing materials. The changing trends in climate change need to get tackled. Looking forward, the federal government can encourage the provincial governments for an improvement in the soil conditions and well-drained soil, that can help absorb huge quantities of rainwater, preventing it from running into the rivers.