2022 Pakistan Floods

• Since the monsoon season began in mid-June, floods have affected at least 33 million people and killed at least 1,739 as of Nov. 18, 2022.
• 20.6 million people require humanitarian assistance.
• According to the post-disaster needs assessment, the flooding caused $14.9 billion in damages and $15.2 billion in economic losses. Estimated needs for rehabilitation and reconstruction in a resilient way are at least $16.3 billion.
• The UN’s development agency, UNDP, says an additional nine million people risk being pushed into poverty on top of the 33 million affected by the devastating floods.
• The food security situation among flood-affected people continues to deteriorate. According to the WFP, 14.6 million people need food assistance and seven million children need nutrition services.
• More than 1.2 million livestock have been killed since mid-June 2022, with severe repercussions on the livelihoods of affected households and the supply of animal products, including milk and meat.
• According to officials, the floods affected nearly 15% of Pakistan’s rice crop and 40% of its cotton crop. The country could face severe food shortages.
• The floods displaced at least 7.9 million people. In Sindh province, more than 89,000 people remain displaced as of Jan. 2, down from 6.5 million in early September.
• The Pakistan 2022 Floods Response Plan was jointly launched on Aug. 30 by the government of Pakistan and the UN. A revised Floods Response Plan was released on Oct. 4 and seeks $816 million to provide humanitarian assistance to 9.5 million people.
• More than 2.1 million homes have been damaged or destroyed by the floods.
• More than 10 million people, including children, living in flood-affected areas do not have access to safe drinking water.
• As of March 31, 2023, humanitarian partners had provided assistance to an estimated 7.51 million people.
• As of Aug. 25, 2022, Pakistan received nearly 15 inches (375 millimeters) of rainfall, almost three times higher than the national 30-year average of 5 inches (130 millimeters). Balochistan province received five times its average 30-year rainfall.

According to the Pakistan Education Sector Working Group, the floods affected 2.2 million children and damaged a total of 34,204 schools in 126 districts. As of early March 2023 there was a 40% gap in funding and low coverage to support school rehabilitations.

According to UNOCHA in their Feb. 6, 2023 Situation Report, “An estimated 3.5 million children, especially girls, are at high risk of permanent school dropout. The longer that the children are away from school, the less likely they are to return, and prolonged education disruptions are increasing learning disparities.”

Pakistan has a long history of major disasters disrupting education for children. Work to cleanup and restore educational facilities damaged by the flooding is ongoing and temporary learning centers are used to continue children’s education as recovery continues. As of April 15, there were 1,586 temporary learning centers in operation. A lack of funding is delaying rehabilitation and the provision of structures and transitional school shelters to damaged schools in flood-affected areas.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), some 9.4 million acres of crop area in Pakistan were potentially inundated in August, including 4.8 million acres in Sindh, 2.7 million acres in Punjab, 1.2 million acres in Balochistan and 714,000 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At least 1.2 million livestock have been killed, with severe repercussions on the livelihoods of affected households and the supply of animal products, including milk and meat.

According to officials, the floods affected nearly 15% of Pakistan’s rice crop and 40% of its cotton crop. Floodwaters wiped out the personal grain stores that many farming families rely on for food yearlong.

Sindh province accounts for nearly one-quarter of the country’s agricultural output, so the damage to crops there and reduced harvests may have implications for food security in Pakistan. The loss of crops and livestock could push families under pressure further into poverty.

The post-disaster needs assessment released in October 2022, said poverty could potentially increase by 5.9 percentage points, meaning that an additional 1.9 million households are at risk of being pushed into poverty. In addition to impacts being felt by farmers and herders, Pakistan’s fishers are also struggling.

In early January 2023, UNDP said it estimated that an additional nine million people risk being pushed into poverty. One-third of children aged 6-23 months suffer from moderate acute malnutrition. UNOCHA said in a report published April 18, 2023, “A rapid survey conducted in 15 flood-affected districts suggests that the number of children suffering from wasting in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas had greatly increased compared to the pre-flood situation, which was already reaching emergency levels.”

Worryingly, UNOCHA says there is evidence that people affected by floods increasingly rely on negative coping strategies, such as selling income-producing assets, increased debt, withdrawal of children from school and skipping meals.

A critical concern in flood-affected areas is the nutrition crisis. A rapid survey by the UN’s Children’s Fund in 15 flood-affected districts revealed that “one-third of children aged 6-23 months suffer from moderate acute malnutrition, and 14% suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life threatening form of malnutrition.”

According to UNOCHA, “There is a looming nutrition crisis: the number of children suffering from wasting in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas had greatly increased compared to the pre-flood situation, which was already reaching emergency levels.” Millions of children are suffering due to last year’s floods, demonstrating the longer-term impacts of disasters on affected populations.

The rise in inflation has an impact on the ability of families to secure food. According to WFP’s market monitoring in March 2023, “Headline inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the highest in 49 years (since 1974), representing an increase of 31.55% in February 2023 compared to February 2022. It should be noted that inflation rates in neighbouring countries stand at 3.6% (Afghanistan), 6.4% (India), and 8.8% (Bangladesh).”

The WFP report also said food prices have continued to increase since February 2022 for the 12th consecutive month. In May, Pakistan’s statistics bureau said inflation rose to a record 36.4% in 2023 through April, with the figure in rural areas at 40.2%.

Worsening the humanitarian situation is the significant damage to roads, bridges and telecommunications across the country. The floods damaged more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of roads and 410 bridges, hampering people’s ability to seek safety and reach markets. Sindh province is the most affected, with 64% of the total road damage and 40% of the bridge damage nationwide. The floods also caused “unprecedented damage” to Pakistan’s rail network.

Internet outages were reported, with the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority attributing the cuts to faults in the fiberoptic network resulting from the floods. Flash floods and landslides are compounded by the inability of existing infrastructure to cope with the extraordinary amount of water.

Water infrastructure has suffered significant damage, and the flood-affected health system is impaired in addressing and mitigating the risk of a major public health crisis. Damaged health infrastructure and inadequate water and sanitation have compounded the risk of measles and rubella, along with water-borne, skin, and acute respiratory illnesses.

Prior to the floods, the country’s drinking water supply system covered 92% of the population. However, only 36% of the water was considered safe for consumption. The floods damaged most of the water systems in affected areas, leaving more than 5.4 million people to rely on contaminated water from ponds and wells.

The floods have caused total or partial damage to 2.1 million homes, a staggering statistic.

While compensation for deaths was paid quickly, in late October affected people were still waiting for repair and reconstruction aid. An example of the results of the enormous needs combined with very limited resources so far is that the Shelter Sector was forced to reduce shelter assistance to include just one tarpaulin per household, halving the normal international standards for humanitarian response. The precarious shelter conditions are complicated by the coming winter. Of the affected population, some 4 million live in provinces where the temperature falls below freezing.

According to UNOCHA’s Jan. 6 Situation Report, “IDPs [internally displaced persons] who are living in informal camps, self-settlement sites or in transitional shelters are more vulnerable to the cold weather. Returnees and people who remained in flood affected areas and who continue to live in partially damaged houses have bare minimums of basic insulation; their inadequacy to effectively face the cold season is often amplified by damaged leaking roofs, broken windows, cracked or collapsed perimetral walls.”

Health officials have been warning of large-scale disease outbreaks following the flooding. They are very concerned about the potential spread of waterborne diseases, which will further strain health facilities.

According to a Jan. 9, 2023 update, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff “are seeing alarmingly high numbers of people with malaria and children with malnutrition among flood-affected communities in Sindh and eastern Balochistan provinces, Pakistan.”

According to UNICEF in March 2023, “more than 10 million people, including children, living in flood-affected areas remain deprived of safe drinking water, leaving families with no alternative but to drink and use potentially disease-ridden water.”

According to the revised Pakistan 2022 Floods Response Plan, “Damage to drinking supply systems and more than 1,460 public health facilities and their contents have reduced access to safe and clean water and inhibited the provision of health services at a time of increased need. Women are disproportionately affected, as they typically bear the burden of tasks such as collecting water for daily household needs and caring for the sick.”

Pakistan had been making steady progress against malaria. However, the floods hit districts that had the most difficult malaria situation already. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of early December, malaria, cholera, acute watery diarrheal diseases and dengue fever were declining in most flood-affected districts. “However, high malaria and cholera cases are still being reported in some pocket districts in Sindh and Balochistan where standing water remains. In November 2022, around 70 suspected cases of Diphtheria were reported from the flood-affected provinces of KP, Sindh, and Punjab.”

In early February 2023, malaria and cholera remained significant public health concerns. In their Feb. 6, 2023 Situation Report, UNOCHA said high malaria positivity rates had been reported at least in 12 flood-affected districts of Sindh and Balochistan. Also, “sporadic cases of cholera are being reported with the potential to spread given the poor access to safe water and sanitation.” The floods have had a significant impact on health, particularly for children.

As is often the case in disasters, the floods have exacerbated underlying vulnerabilities that existed prior to the recent flooding. Click To Tweet

According to WHO, “Pakistan is among the top 10 countries in the world with a large pool of unvaccinated or undervaccinated children and is home to more than 600,000 children who have not received a single vaccine dose. The recent floods have compounded the problem, further reducing access to routine immunization services, especially in flood-affected districts.”

Also worrying is that, at the height of the floods, almost 650,000 women in flood-affected areas need maternity services, but damage to health facilities, limited medical supplies and challenges reaching functioning facilities prevents some women from getting the care they need. Experts fear an increase in infant mortality or health complications for mothers or children in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia. As of early November 2022, approximately 136,950 births were expected in the next three months.

According to UNOCHA in early February 2023, “The 5.71 million women and girls in flood-affected areas continue to be at a high risk of gender-based violence (GBV), compounding pre-existing gender inequality and vulnerabilities, lack of availability and access to lifesaving GBV services. With limited and/or no access to services, women and girls are at heightened risk of resorting to negative coping mechanisms.”

The government is concerned about the spread of the wild poliovirus as millions of people are displaced due to the flooding. On Sept. 28, 2022, partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and donors met in Islamabad to assess needs and discuss a path forward. A three-day-long campaign was held from Jan. 16-18, 2023 with the aim to immunize more than 44.2 million children under the age of five against the poliovirus. On March 17, 2023, the Pakistan National Polio Laboratory confirmed a three-year-old child was paralyzed by polio. There are seven polio endemic districts of south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.