Death toll rises to 156 as weeks of heavy monsoon rains wreak havoc in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- The death toll from nearly six weeks of monsoon rains and flash floods across Pakistan has risen to 156, officials said Thursday, as downpours continued in much of the country, inundating some villages and causing landslides.

More than 1,800 homes have been damaged since July 1, when the monsoon rains began, the National Disaster Management Authority said. Orchards in remote areas of the southwestern Baluchistan province have also been damaged, and rains flooded many streets in the eastern city of Lahore.

Pakistan is in the middle of the annual monsoon season, which runs from July through September. Scientists and weather forecasters blame climate change for heavy rains in recent years.

In 2022, when climate-induced downpours swelled rivers and inundated at one point one-third of the country, killing 1,739 people and causing $30 billion in damage.

This monsoon season, the Pakistan-administered portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir has also been battered by rains, causing landslides.

Many of the 156 deaths occurred in the eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to the disaster agency and provincial authorities. Nearly 300 people were also injured in the rain-related incidents, and authorities are providing free food and medical care to the rain-affected people, officials said.

Currently, more than 2,000 people are in relief camps in rain-affected areas in the southern Sindh province, officials said. According to weather forecasters, the latest spell of the rains will continue until next Monday.

On Thursday, the aid group International Rescue Committee said it is preparing to scale up its response in Pakistan with looming rains posing a threat to the lives and livelihoods of millions.

“Our priority is to ensure that affected communities receive timely and adequate support to prevent this humanitarian crisis from deepening,” the group's director in Pakistan, Shabnam Baloch, said in a statement.