Climate Change and Bad Infrastructure worsen Pakistan’s floods

By: Alice Li

Every year, Pakistan civilians deal with floods and monsoons with nearly no help from the government. This year, the monsoons have been particularly severe, and over the past month at least 282 people have been killed.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, believes that this weather pattern is connected to climate change. According to her, the rains have been 87 percent higher than average, and Rehman gives a warning that floods should continue with how fast the glaciers are melting.

The bad infrastructure of the sewers also is at blame for the floods. The old drainage could not hold the rising water due the torrential rains, but the country did fare better than usual as the government had begun clearing clogged drains and building some new ones.

Many people are blaming the government for the destruction to their homes, as while there have been many promises to repair the infrastructure, not much has been done in the past two years. Danish, a carpenter, was riding a motorcycle with his wife and two children when heavy rains flooded the road. They fell down an open drain, and while bystanders managed to save Danish and his three-year-old, his wife and other child drowned. “It was not rain that killed my wife and child,” Danish said. “It was the government’s incompetence and people’s helplessness.”