Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday kept on stressing that Pakistan can no longer afford short-term fixes to its recurring flood disasters. It needs a long-term plan or strategy to control all this.
Visiting Narowal, one of the badly hit areas in Punjab, he underlined the urgent requirement to construct new water reservoirs and dams to manage floodwaters effectively. Without increasing the country’s water storage capacity, he warned, all other relief and rescue efforts would remain incomplete.
He urged that short-, medium-, and long-term strategies must be formulated to deal with climate-induced disasters. “Pakistan is among the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change,” the premier said, noting that the frequency and intensity of floods were continuously increasing each year.
Lessons from 2022 Floods
Recalling the devastation of the 2022 floods, Shehbaz Sharif reminded that Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and South Punjab had to encounter an enormous destruction.
Millions of acres of crops were wiped out, livestock was lost, and the national economy endured billions of dollars in damages. Such events, he cautioned, would only grow more severe if structural reforms in water management were not pursued urgently.
Building Storage Capacity
The Prime Minister reiterated the vitality of speeding up work on major projects such as the Bhasha and Mohmand Dams. He also called for starting to explore smaller-scale water storage projects in areas such as Chiniot and northern areas, saying smaller dams could help in providing quicker relief while large projects took years to complete. “If we are unable to conserve water today, we will keep suffering tomorrow,” he said firmly.
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Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, accompanying the PM, echoed the sentiment, claiming that Narowal had witnessed its worst monsoon rains in nearly 40 years.
She highlighted that more than 1,000 field clinics had been set up, and arrangements were made for livestock feed and clean drinking water. However, Maryum kept on stressing that lasting solutions lay in building infrastructure to conserve the flood water and manage the floods.
United Response to Disaster
Shehbaz has shown sorrow over the loss of lives but along with this he also admired the efforts done by the Pakistan Army, NDMA, Rescue 1122, federal ministers, and local administration.
He noted that helicopters and boats had been deployed to safely evacuate the stranded families and pilgrims from Gurdwara Kartarpur despite harsh weather conditions.
He also welcomed Punjab’s declaration of immediate compensation for farmers who lost crops, guaranteeing that affected households would be given relief.
Technical Briefing and Future Outlook
During the visit, NDMA Chairman Lt. Gen. Inam Haider Malik gave relevant briefings to the Prime Minister that extraordinary rainfall in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir and the Sialkot region had caused intense and huge river surges. At Khanki and Qadirabad, water flows touched one million cusecs—posing serious risks downstream.
The Prime Minister concluded his visit with a firm message: while rescue and relief are vital, Pakistan’s survival against climate disasters all relies on building dams, strengthening institutions and fostering federal-provincial teamwork to protect future generations.