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Residents accuse those responsible for not warning them of evacuating like torrential rains, cloud explosions trigger deadly floods.
Sudden floods induced by climate change have killed at least 337 people in northwest Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, while dozens remain disappeared after the area has been affected by sudden floods in recent days.
In the Kishtwar district, the emergency teams continued the rescue efforts on Sunday in the distant village of Chositi. At least 60 were killed and around 150 injured, including around 50 of them.
Mohammad Suhail, spokesperson for the emergency service, said 54 bodies had been found after several hours of efforts in Buner, a mountainous district of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where torrential rains and clouds triggered massive floods on Friday.
Suhail said several villagers remained missing. Research efforts focused on the areas where houses were flattened by water torrents that swept the mountains, wearing massive rocks that broke into houses like explosions.
The cloud blows also caused a devastation in the cashmere administered by the Indians. Sudden floods have been reported in two villages in the Kathua district, killing at least seven people and injuring five others overnight, officials said.
The authorities warned against more floods and possible landslides by Tuesday, urging local administrations to stay on alert. The monsoon rains higher than normal have whipped the country since June 26 and killed more than 600.
Government criticism
Buner’s angry residents have accused officials of not warning them of evacuating after torrential rains and cloud explosions triggered fatal floods and landslides. There was no warning diffused from mosque speakers, a traditional method in remote areas.
Mohammad Iqbal, a teacher from the village of Pir Baba, told the Associated Press that the absence of a timely alert system had caused victims and forced a lot to flee their homes at the last moment.
“The survivors escaped without anything,” he said. “If people had been informed earlier, lives could have been saved and residents could have moved to safer places.”
The government said that if an early alert system was in place, sudden Buner showers were so intense that the flood hit before residents could be alerted.
Lieutenant-General Inam Haider Malik, president of the National Disaster Management Authority, told Islamabad to a press conference that Pakistan knew changing weather conditions due to climate change.
Since the start of the monsoon season in June, Pakistan has already received 50% more precipitation as in the same period last year, he added. He warned that more intense weather conditions could follow, with heavy rain that should continue this month.
Asfandyar Khan Khattak, director general of the provincial disaster management authority, said that there was “no forecast system anywhere in the world” which could predict the exact time and location of a Cloudburst.
IDREES MAHSUD, a disaster management manager, said the early alert system of Pakistan used satellite imaging and meteorological data to send alerts to local authorities. These were shared by the media and community leaders. He said that the monsoon rains which, once only inflated the rivers, also sparked urban floods.
Pakistan suffers from sudden floods and regular landslides during the monsoon season, which takes place from June to September, especially in the northwest rugged, where the villages are often perched on steep slopes and banks.
Experts say that climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of these extreme weather events in South Asia. Although Pakistan is estimated within one percent of the global warming emissions, it faces thermal waves, heavy rain, ice lighting floods and cloud explosions that devastate local communities in a few hours.
