Death toll from heavy rains, floods in Pakistan since June 26 surpasses 1,000

ISLAMABAD

The death toll from heavy rains and floods in Pakistan since June 26 has surpassed 1,000, with over 1,000 people injured, officials said on Thursday.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), at least 504 people have died in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 300 in northeastern Punjab, 80 in southern Sindh, 30 in southwestern Balochistan province, 41 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 39 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, also known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and nine in Islamabad.

The 1,002 dead included 274 children, 163 women, and 565 men.

Flooding and heavy rains also caused significant infrastructure damage, with over 12,000 houses damaged, including 4,128 destroyed completely, and 6,509 livestock killed across the country.

The monsoon season has caused widespread devastation across the country, with thousands displaced in Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

The ongoing flood in Punjab has affected over 2.4 million people, with 2.6 million already rescued from flood-affected areas.

The devastating floods, the worst in the country's history, have also displaced tens of thousands of downstream residents in southern Sindh province.

The mighty Indus River is experiencing high to medium flooding as floodwaters move downstream, according to the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD).

In late August, India—also battered by heavy rains—opened the gates of major dams on rivers shared under the Indus Waters Treaty, cautioning Pakistan that the releases could swell downstream floods. The added discharges pushed Punjab’s water levels even higher.

For the first time in Pakistan’s 78-year history, three eastern rivers—the Sutlej, Jhelum, and Chenab—are simultaneously at “exceptionally” high flood levels, according to local authorities.

Officials warn the current floods are the worst since the catastrophic deluges of 2022, which killed more than 1,700 people, submerged a third of the country, and caused an estimated $32 billion in infrastructure damage.