The government unveils a monsoon preparedness plan as the climate minister calls for better management to tackle disasters

Pakistan must shift its focus from simply storing water to regulating it year-round, Climate Minister Musadiq Malik said on Tuesday, as federal ministers outlined the government’s monsoon preparedness strategy and warned that better water management would be critical to protecting food security and reducing the impact of climate-related disasters.

The briefing came as Pakistan continued to battle a deadly monsoon season, with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reporting that at least 107 people had died and 297 others had been injured since the rains began on June 26. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted another heavy monsoon period with heavy urban flooding, with urban flooding on the 29th in Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

Speaking at the NDMA headquarters along with other ministers, Malik said the government had moved away from a one-size-fits-all disaster response and adopted a strategy tailored to the different risks faced by different parts of the country.

“Our strategy is separate. It has been further segmented,” he said, explaining that dedicated plans were developed with the provinces for cities vulnerable to extreme heat, along with separate strategies for the northern regions, agricultural plains and rural areas to protect food security and boost agricultural productivity.

The minister asserted that Pakistan’s biggest challenge was not simply to store more water, but to ensure that it was available when farmers needed it.

“If you let the equivalent of ten Mangla dams of water flow away during the last floods and didn’t keep it for the time you actually needed it, what wisdom was there in that?” he asked.

“We must not just collect water. We must regulate the water.”

He said dams should be seen as instruments for regulating water supply rather than simply storing it, and warned that without adequate water in the Rabi and Kharif seasons, food security would inevitably suffer.

Calling water infrastructure a matter of national security, Malik said the government would focus on improving water regulation, telemetry and storage systems while working with provinces to tighten zoning and building standards.

“If a roof collapses, tell me what any government can do afterwards,” he said, adding that while building regulation falls primarily to provincial governments under the 18th Amendment, the federation would provide the necessary technical support.

Read: Ten more die, while the death toll in the monsoon tops 100

National Food Security Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, addressing the same panel, said: “Pakistan in particular will need much larger water storage in the coming days.”

He said the country must prepare for two parallel challenges: “how to deal with floods and how to overcome water shortages.” Describing food security, water management and disaster preparedness as “interdependent and interconnected”, he said expanding storage capacity remained a priority.

Tanveer said Diamer-Bhasha Dam would add about 6.4 million acre-feet of storage capacity, while Mohmand Dam would contribute nearly one million acre-feet. He also pointed to progress on the Dasu project and expressed hope that Karachi’s K-IV water supply project would be completed by the end of this year or early next year.

Echoing calls for a coordinated approach, Finance Minister Aurangzeb described climate change and population growth as Pakistan’s two “existential issues” and said: “There has to be a whole-of-government approach.”

He credited the NDMA’s National Emergencies Operation Center (NEOC) with significantly improving Pakistan’s ability to anticipate disasters, recalling that officials had accurately predicted glacial lake outbursts, floods and heat waves during briefings last year. “I was here in November and December. We were given minute-by-minute presentations on when glacial lake outbursts would occur, when flash floods would occur and when heat waves would arrive.”

Aurangzeb also said that Pakistan was now in a stronger financial position to respond to disasters than it had been during the catastrophic floods of 2022. “The Prime Minister and the Cabinet have decided that we now have sufficient resources so that we can use our own resources for rescue and relief whenever such disasters occur.”

He warned that climate change posed a direct threat to economic growth, saying: “If we don’t address these two issues properly, it will be irrelevant whether we grow at 4%, 5%, 6% or 8%.”

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said preparations for the monsoon season had begun long before the rains under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directives, with the NDMA coordinating closely with federal ministries, provincial governments, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He credited the NEOC forecasting technology and early warning systems for helping reduce loss and damage to property during this year’s monsoon.

“This NEOC is one of the few facilities of its kind in the world,” Tarar said, describing it as “an asset” that enabled authorities to issue timely warnings through traditional media and the NDMA Alert mobile application.

Read more: Monsoon keeps Punjab rivers high

He urged citizens to remain vigilant and respond promptly to official warnings, noting that several cities had received months of rainfall within just a few days.

Thanking the media for stepping up weather alerts and public awareness campaigns, Tarar said the government would continue to work with broadcasters and digital platforms to keep citizens informed throughout the monsoon season.

“Under the Prime Minister’s watch, we are pursuing an efficient whole-of-government approach,” he said. “We will protect the infrastructure, ensure rapid response wherever damage occurs and reduce congestion for the population.”

Monsoon in full swing

Several rivers in Punjab continued to experience floods due to monsoon rains, though the flood situation in the Chenab river showed signs of improvement during the last 24 hours, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Monday.

The PDMA said the river flows had remained steady during the last 24 hours. Low level flooding continued in the Indus River at Kalabagh, Chashma and Taunsa where water flows were recorded at 273,000, 313,000 and 364,000 cusecs respectively.

Punjab and KP have borne the brunt of the fatalities, many of them caused by collapsing mud houses, electrocution and lightning strikes. Gilgit-Baltistan has also suffered extensive damage, with flash floods and mudslides destroying houses, bridges and road infrastructure in several districts.

The government has also prepared for another period of heavy rain. PMD has forecast a strong monsoon system from July 29, warning of widespread rainfall in Islamabad, upper Punjab, KP, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the upper catchments of major rivers.

The weather department has warned that the system could trigger urban flooding, flash floods in hill streams and nullahs, and a rise in river flows, prompting authorities to step up preparedness and emergency response measures ahead of the new spell.

Meanwhile, GB remains among the worst-hit regions, with flash floods, mudslides and landslides damaging 184 houses, destroying nine bridges and washing away nearly eight kilometers of roads, according to the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority.

It said 60 disaster incidents have been recorded across the region, with Astore reporting the highest number of damaged houses, Diamer suffering widespread destruction and Skardu recording the highest bridge losses.