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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster agency on Wednesday warned of continued torrential rains, flash floods and landslides in the country’s northern and central regions, as the nationwide death toll from this monsoon season climbed to 245, with over 600 people injured.

The alert follows weeks of heavy rains that have triggered house collapses, urban flooding and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), phenomena linked to rapid glacier melt, with children making up nearly half of all fatalities.

“Heavy rains may generate flash floods in local streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a statement.

“Urban flooding is also likely in low-lying areas of major cities including Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Nowshera and Peshawar.”

The PMD also warned that glacier lake outburst floods remained a growing threat in high-altitude areas, exacerbated by accelerated ice melt driven by global warming. It urged the public to avoid travel to mountainous regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and Murree, due to the heightened risk of landslides.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), this monsoon season which began in late June, at least 135 deaths have occurred in Punjab, including 63 children, followed by 59 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24 in Sindh, 16 in Balochistan, six in Islamabad, three in Gilgit-Baltistan, and two in Azad Kashmir.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to accelerate relief operations in flood-hit regions.

Local media reported that search efforts were still underway for a father and daughter whose car was swept away in a flash flood in Islamabad’s upscale Defense Housing Authority (DHA) neighborhood.

Earlier this week, key travel routes such as the Karakoram Highway and Babusar Top were closed due to heavy landslides, blocking access to northern Pakistan.

The monsoon typically delivers 70–80 percent of South Asia’s annual rainfall between June and September. While crucial for agriculture, the seasonal rains also bring destruction in countries like Pakistan where infrastructure is weak, drainage systems are poor and climate resilience remains underfunded.

Pakistan, home to more than 7,000 glaciers, ranks among the most climate-vulnerable countries despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It has already experienced increasingly erratic weather in recent years, including record-breaking heatwaves, droughts, and severe storms.

In 2022, unprecedented monsoon rains combined with glacial melt submerged nearly a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing over 8 million. The disaster inflicted $30 billion in damages and prompted global calls for climate reparations.

In May this year, at least 32 more people were killed during sudden rainfall and hailstorm incidents.

ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani officials on Tuesday urged stronger cross-sector coordination to address the country’s rising climate-linked health risks, as stakeholders gathered in Islamabad to reaffirm support for the One Health Pakistan initiative, a national framework linking human, animal and environmental health.

The meeting was held at COMSTECH and co-hosted by the Health Services Academy and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination. It brought together officials from the health, environment and development sectors, along with representatives from the World Health Organization, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and World Wide Fund for Nature.

The session focused on building a climate-resilient health workforce and integrated response systems for pandemic preparedness.

“We must reaffirm our collective commitment to the One Health Pakistan initiative,” said Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr. Nelson Azeem. “The challenges we face are interlinked, and so must be our response.”

Other speakers warned that unchecked pollution, biodiversity loss and weak institutional coordination were accelerating zoonotic disease outbreaks and undermining early warning systems.

Participants proposed the creation of dedicated One Health Units within provincial and federal departments to streamline disease surveillance and climate-health response planning, potentially funded through Annual Development Plans, Public Sector Development Program or international pandemic preparedness programs.

Those present also agreed to turn dialogue into concrete action by strengthening inter-agency coordination, investing in integrated surveillance systems and scaling up climate-resilient health planning nationwide.