As communities struggle to rebuild, many have little time to grieve the immense losses they have suffered.
Since June, more than six million people in Pakistan have been affected by what has been described as “unusually heavy monsoon rains” which have claimed the lives of almost 1,000 people, including around 250 children.
Residents are still recovering from flash floods that turned streams into roaring rivers of mud, and many displaced people continue to shelter in government-run camps or with already strained host families.
In Pakistan’s northern Buner district, dozens of people died in the village of Bishnoi under rocks and debris when flash floods swept down the slopes, sweeping away homes and lives within minutes.
In Buner in northern Pakistan, flash floods transformed mountain streams into fields of boulders, with iron bars protruding like rusty crops.
“We have never seen anything like this,” said Habib-un-Nabi, 35, a teacher from Bishnoi village.
His simple words carry the weight of grief and disbelief. Habib lost eighteen family members in a single day, including his parents and brother.
Those who survived barely had time to grieve. “We were too busy trying to dig up others, helping whoever we could,” Habib recalls.
IOM Support
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Pakistan launched humanitarian operations in the flood-affected areas of the north, where hundreds of people lost their lives and thousands were left homeless.
In Punjab – Pakistan’s most populous province and hardest hit in terms of infrastructure damage during the 2025 floods – IOM worked with partners and through the Common Pipeline, a shared humanitarian logistics system that stores and delivers emergency goods.
Between August and September 2025, the UN migration agency distributed nearly 14,000 family relief kits tailored to local needs across the four provinces under a single project.
These interventions are part of broader efforts to help communities adapt to an increasingly human-made climate crisis fueled by deforestation, rapid urbanization and the degradation of natural drainage systems.
In Naseer Khan Lolai, a village in Kashmore, Ali Gohar, 65, has experienced many floods, but none have been as devastating as this one.
Entire houses collapsed, livestock were swept away and the land – owned by local owners – left farmers like him with little control over their rebuilding.
As floods and heatwaves intensify in Pakistan, communities are showing that adaptation is not only possible but essential, transforming the human cost of climate change into a call for shared responsibility and stronger action.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
