The southern city of Karachi, home to 16 million people, has seen neighborhoods and vehicles submerged in knee-deep muddy waters. the roads are impassable. At least 15 people have died since Saturday. Public services in the city have been suspended and businesses have closed. The country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said infrastructure, road networks and 5,600 houses had been damaged. Pakistan, which suffered extreme heat earlier this year, is ranked among the most vulnerable countries in the Global Climate Risk Index, which tracks the economic and human loss due to extreme weather. Pakistan has lost an estimated 10,000 lives to environmental disasters, with economic losses of $4 billion in the decade to 2018. “Climate plays its part,” said Afia Salam, a climate activist. “We’ve got a changing monsoon, we’ve got heavier rainfall, we’ve got rain that falls in a very short period of time, which is once spread out, so these changing weather patterns are there. Karachi facing urban flooding is the sign of the times of unpredictable weather. We have not adapted to these changes and we need to protect people through proper planning,” he said. Residents of Karachi cross a flooded road after a deluge this month. Photo: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images “Government mismanagement is obvious: in Balochistan we always have flash floods and yet we have deaths, and in 2022 even infrastructure losses are unacceptable. There is a lack of coordination between the department and the warnings issued, but the disaster management is not doing anything,” Salam said. In Karachi, traders are counting their losses, with major floods in the commercial sector ravaging the electronics and clothing market and leading to a loss of billions of rupees. “We have no alternative but to take our products to drier and safer places because the roads turned into rivers – and even vehicles could not pass through the muddy water on the roads,” said electronics dealer Ahmed Khan. In Orangi Town, a slum in Karachi, Farooq Ali and his neighbors face a cleanup after deluge of floods entered their homes. “The weather is now unpredictable and life comes to a standstill when it rains even for a few hours. “It will take weeks to drain the water, without any support from the municipal government,” said Ali, a 34-year-old vegetable seller.
