Year after devastating floods in Pakistan, some have recovered but many are struggling

Homes are surrounded by floodwaters in Sohbat Pur city, a district of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Aug. 29, 2022. [AP Photo]

But last year's floods won't be the last or the worst disaster the province could face in the future.

The province is "burdened with an alarming and diverse portfolio" of potential weather and water disasters because of its geography, said Taimur Khan, spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has eight major rivers running through it, as well as mountain ranges, hills, flat green plains and arid plateaus. That makes it vulnerable to earthquakes, landslides, flash flooding, glacial lake outburst floods and melting glaciers.

Climate change, global warming and shifting monsoon patterns increase the frequency and impact of such disasters.

Authorities are taking some steps to prepare. They have installed an early warning system on seven of the major rivers to monitor water levels, and a monsoon contingency plan is being put in place to minimize loss of life and damage to property. Embankments were strengthened last year ahead of the flooding, helping to avert a bigger disaster, and riverbanks breached by floods have been repaired and reinforced.

Lucky break for agriculture

It wasn't the flooding that nearly killed 80-year-old Razia Bibi and her family, it was the hunger.

They used to donate wheat to needy people, but the floods washed away the wheat they'd stored for the whole year in their home in Rojhan, Rajanpur district. Then they had to wait for weeks, scrounging for food, before food supplies arrived from the government and aid groups.

"The government did not give us enough rations and no relief team could reach our village because of a dam breaking," she said. A $175 cash give-out from the government helped ease their ordeal, she said, adding that it was thanks to God that none of her family became sick.

Last year's images of vast stretches of farmland underwater in Punjab province raised alarm over potential massive food shortages. Punjab is Pakistan's biggest agricultural producer and its most populated province. Millions of acres of crops nationwide were destroyed by the waters, and a major international aid agency warned that the loss could be felt for years.

In the end, Punjab was spared, largely by luck rather than preparation. Authorities installed pumps that got rid of some of the standing water on farmland, but most of the waters drained on their own, some flowing down into Sindh province, some spreading into deserted, open areas.

Waters receded in time for Punjab farmers to do the October sowing season and the result was a bumper crop. In fact, the crop was boosted because the floods also brought with them good quality soil, a blessing in disguise, and enabled expanded planting in usually barren areas.

Still, the relief came after months of real food scarcity that followed the floods - and that risks being repeated in future disasters.

Across Punjab, stores of grain were wiped out along with at least a half-million acres of crops and orchards. Irrigation channels and roads connected farms to markets were wrecked. At the peak of the crisis, food prices rose sharply, as did those of everyday items like tea and sugar, which doubled. Vegetables were scarce.

The government scrambled to help the agricultural industry, a key driver of national growth and a major employer, through the distribution of seeds and fertilizer.

But infrastructure like roads and bridges remain unrepaired in the Punjab, which contributes more than half of the national GDP.

Ghulam Nabi, 42, lost everything when the floods swept through his town of Fazilpur. At first, he, his wife and five children moved into a school that had been turned into a public shelter for the homeless. But when it became overcrowded, they moved to a tent.

"Me and my pregnant wife were just living on water with no food available to us. It wasn't even enough for our four children," he said. "Living anywhere after being displaced is not easy. I pray that no one faces this situation."

Left without schools

Situated downstream from Pakistan's other provinces, Sindh suffered a heavy blow from last year's flooding and has been slow to recover. One impact that residents fear will be long-lasting is the destruction of the province's schools.

Around half of Sindh's 40,356 schools were either fully or partially damaged, affecting 2.3 million of its 4.5 million students, according to local education official Abdul Qadeer Ansari. One reason for the scale of the damage was the age of the school buildings, between 25 to 30 years old, he said. Another is that they weren't climate resistant or built to withstand flooding, despite the province suffering from some of the most extreme weather conditions in Pakistan.

Women work in a cotton field in Rajanpur, a district of Pakistan's Punjab province, May 21, 2023. In Punjab, farms got a lucky break as the water enriched once-dry lands during the floods last year. [AP Photo]

So far, only around 2,000 schools are being rebuilt, with hefty contributions from the Chinese government and the Asian Development Bank. Ansari estimates reconstruction will take at least two years, with the new schools intended to be climate resistant.

In the village of Maskran Brohi, 115 students take classes in a temporary learning center in a tent. The 72-square-meter tent has no electricity, so it has neither lights nor fans. There are also no toilets and no clean water.

The only teacher, Zarina Bibi, worries what the summer will bring, when temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), and the heat inside the tent will become unbearable.

UNICEF has supplied some books, but most students must make do with old books - if they have them. Many lost their books in the deluge.

At first after the floods, Bibi held classes under the shade of a tree. She doesn't see most of the 87 kids she taught before the flooding_families scattered when the floods came_and rain flattened the roof and walls of the single-room primary school she used to teach in. Her only colleague quit last January, months before the monsoon season, in protest at the lack of facilities.

Even before the floods, primary education in Sindh was below par, said Noorul Huda Shah, an activist and writer. Government schools could only accommodate around half of the province's school-age children, and there was already a high dropout rate among girls after grade 5 as middle schools couldn't take all students. Now after the damage, it's even worse.

"The long-term impact of this loss on future generations is a critical concern," Shah said.

Starved for energy

Pakistan's biggest province is also its most energy-starved.

Much of Baluchistan's population relies on solar panels, not because of their green credentials but because they are the only way to power fans, lights and cell phones.

Outside cities like Quetta and Gwadar, there is almost no central electricity. The largely rural population is scattered over the mountainous landscape, crippled by an entrenched feudal system, under-development and neglect by the local and central government.

They faced losing what little they had in last year's flooding. Last year was the wettest in Baluchistan since 1961, and August alone saw a 590% jump in its average rainfall for that month. Even those fortunate enough to have access to central electricity suffered as the floods destroyed 81 grid stations and downed power lines.

Many who lost their homes also lost their solar panels, and local authorities haven't distributed replacements. Flood survivors living in temporary shelters repeatedly cited a lack of electricity or light as a major concern, the U.N.'s migration agency said in a report late last year, months after the rains stopped. It affected people's safety, privacy, and comfort. Some of those interviewed for the report said electricity had never existed in their area.