Torrential rains claimed 99 lives, including 35 children, in KP during 2024, says report
Javed Khan
PESHAWAR: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has raised serious concerns over the escalating climate crisis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in its State of Human Rights in 2024 report, revealing that extreme weather events, deforestation, glacier melt, and hazardous working conditions claimed dozens of lives, many of them children and mine workers, while leaving thousands more vulnerable across the province.
According to the report, two major spells of torrential rains in 2024 claimed at least 99 lives, 35 of them children, and injured over 70 people.
In March, widespread damage, power outages, and blocked roads were reported in Abbottabad, Hazara, and Lower Kohistan, where rescue operations were hampered, said the report.
It stated that an emergency was declared in 13 districts in April to expedite relief and rehabilitation efforts. However, residents of Khyber tribal district called for the area to be officially declared a disaster zone, citing insufficient aid.
Additional financial support was announced in August as flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) continued to displace families and damage crops. At least 27 people, including 12 children, lost their lives in flood-related incidents during the year.
The HRCP report also expressed concern over rapid environmental degradation. A January exposé revealed that over 20 million cubic feet of timber, worth Rs 40 billion, had deteriorated in the forests of Hazara and Malakand due to shifting climate patterns.
In response, the provincial government banned timber operations in June. Yet illegal logging and unchecked deforestation persisted, particularly in Swat, leading to what some reports described as increasingly uninhabitable summer conditions in the region.
As per the report the climate change also continued to accelerate glacier melt, with thousands of glacial lakes forming in the northern districts, raising the threat of more frequent GLOFs.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) issued warnings for Chitral, Dir, Kohistan, Kurram, Mansehra, and Swat. In June, a formal complaint was filed with the Environmental Protection Agency against illegal glacier ice harvesting.
Air quality in urban centers also declined sharply. In December, Peshawar was ranked the third most polluted city in Pakistan and ninth globally, as vehicle emissions and unregulated urban expansion contributed to a spike in respiratory illnesses.
The HRCP has urged the KP government to take urgent, coordinated action to mitigate the impacts of climate change and safeguard the rights and well-being of its citizens.
It called for stricter enforcement of environmental laws, investment in sustainable infrastructure, and meaningful engagement with affected communities.
