Pakistan has issued a national alert due to the fear of heavy rains, floods | Climate Crisis News

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has entered what disaster managers call a “critical window” for the weather.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday issued a global alert, warning of thunderstorms, heavy rains, urban flooding, and a high risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) across the northern parts of the country in the next 12 to 24 hours.

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The warning identified Hunza and Skardu regions in the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan in the north and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest among the areas at risk of possible severe weather.

Officials also warned of flooding in the capital Islamabad, and other urban areas, including Rawalpindi and neighboring areas. Provincial and district administrations have been put on high alert and advised to maintain their drains.

NDMA advised tourists and travelers to avoid unnecessary travel during heavy rains. People are also being asked to check the weather and road conditions before heading north, which could lead to road closures.

The warning came at a time when Pakistan wanted to make this possible fourth year in a row of the punishing monsoon, which is expected to arrive at the end of this month.

Melting of ice

Last year, cyclones in Pakistan killed more than 1,000 people, including 275 children, and displaced three million people from their homes.

But that was it flood in 2022 – mainly due to the melting of glaciers and the submergence of almost a third of the country – which put Pakistan at the center of the global climate crisis.

Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet remains in the top five countries most affected by climate change.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, this year’s temperature reached 48.5 degrees Celsius (119.3 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record high in 1971. The heat has increased glaciers, swelling and erosion of seas in the ecologically sensitive region.

Pakistan has about 13,000 glaciers – the most in the world after the polar ice caps. And global warming is melting fast.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the melting of ice across the Hindu Kush, Himalaya and Karakoram mountains in Pakistan have formed more than 3,000 glaciers in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of those, 33 have been assessed as being at risk of a catastrophic eruption, and more than 7.1 million people living in the vicinity are at risk.

GLOFs release millions of cubic meters of water and debris in a matter of hours, damaging bridges, fields and downstream areas.

In collaboration with UNDP, Pakistan in 2017 launched the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Reduction project, known as GLOF-II, covering 24 valleys in 15 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The project focused on early warning, flood protection, and community disaster preparedness.

But Zakir Hussain, head of the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority, told Al Jazeera that the number of cases under Pakistan’s early warning system is unclear.

The GLOF-II project, he said, had only 16 selected plains, not the whole of Gilgit-Baltistan, and within those plains, only a few areas. In most of the affected areas in 2025, including Ghizer, Diamer and other parts of Hunza, there is no early warning system in place.

“The problem was there was no availability at all,” Hussain told Al Jazeera.

“Unlike the Shishper in the Hunza valley. This is the only situation where warning alerts were triggered but no warning was given even though the glacier changed its behavior. In other cases, these are very different problems, and we need to make the difference clear.”

The difference in income

The 2022 floods are still a sign of how Pakistan’s climate disasters can change. The floods killed nearly 1,700 people, displaced more than 30 million people, destroyed $14.8bn in property, and wiped out $15.2bn from Pakistan’s total economy.

Pakistan hosted a donor conference in Geneva in January 2023to about $11bn it was pledged by various countries and international financial institutions to stop the floods. But according to the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, only $4.5bn had been allocated by June 2025, mainly for housing, transport and flood risk management.

Hussain was specific about what the deficit represented.

“It is clear that the parties in the meeting are not carrying out their responsibility in terms of sending money, sending technology, and encouraging countries that are suffering from the effects of carbon emissions and developing countries,” he said.

What makes the country vulnerable, Hussain added, is not only the lack of infrastructure, but also the lack of coordination between different institutions.

“There is no single authoritative source of truth,” Hussain told Al Jazeera.

“What one agency approves, another doesn’t, and that creates a lot of complexity and confusion in the administration.”