Monsoon floods, extreme weather wreak havoc across Asia killing more than 130 children and destroying schools

BANGKOK, 6 August 2025 - The annual monsoon season in Asia has unleashed devastating and deadly floods across several countries, killing more than 130 children and forcing children out of classrooms as they face futures exposed to more frequent weather extremities, Save the Children said. 

Across the region countries including China, Pakistan, Thailand, Laos and the Philippines are experiencing storms and earlier-than-usual monsoon seasons partly brought about by climate change.

Homes and schools have been destroyed leaving families without shelter or access to education, including in the Philippines where multiple tropical cyclones over the past weeks have totally destroyed about 1,350 classrooms across the country.

More than 200 schools are also currently being used in the Philippines as evacuation centres, further limiting access to spaces where children can learn.  

But extreme weather in Asia isn’t limited to floods. 

Asia – the world’s most climate and weather disaster-prone region [1] - experienced its hottest year on record in 2023 and is heating up faster than the global average, with increased casualties and economic losses from floods, storms, and more severe heatwaves. [2]

In Nepal’s Madhesh Province children and their families are currently facing water shortages because of drought. Save the Children, in partnership with the Rural Women Upliftment Association (RWUA) and the local government, is delivering over 20,000 litres of clean drinking water to about 500 of the most-affected households.

Floods between 23-29 July in China’s capital Beijing left a trail of devastation and forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people, including children, according to the government’s latest press conference. 

Schools in the north of Thailand have also reported flood damage this year, elevating fears of a repeat of widespread floods in the same area last year that saw classrooms and school materials destroyed. Severe flooding in July across 11 northern and northeastern Thai provinces has affected over 145,000 people, including children.

In Pakistan, floods that began earlier than usual in the last week of June have damaged clean drinking water sources and fields used for farming across multiple districts of the country’s most populated province of Punjab.

More than 280 people, including 133 children, have lost their lives since the start of the monsoon season, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and more than a quarter of Punjab’s schools have been partially or completely damaged.

In Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal district of Feni, schools are being used as flood shelters after two rivers in the district overflowed. Save the Children, along with its local partner Uttaran, is distributing hygiene kits to affected families as well as cash handouts.

Relief operations are also underway in the Philippines where Save the Children is providing life-saving relief kits to 567 displaced families.

Tel*, 10, stayed in an evacuation center in Cavite Province in the Philippines with her parents and younger sibling after their home was hit by flooding caused by the three back-to-back cyclones. All of Tel's school supplies were soaked, leaving her anxious about returning to class.

"I wasn't able to do my school assignment because all my things got wet. We really need replacements when we go back to school,” said Tel. 

Arshad Malik, Asia Regional Director, Save the Children International, said: 

"Monsoon floods in Asia are a yearly occurrence, but the scale and intensity of this year’s flooding in multiple countries across the region is extremely worrying. This should be a wake-up call for all of us, including decision makers across the region. We live in an interconnected world and climate change and weather extremities will affect us all.

“Our climate is changing fast and it is hurting those who are least responsible for it: children. This is a global injustice but there is still time to change course.”

Human-induced climate change is driving up global temperatures, with the past 10 years the warmest on record [3], according to the World Meteorological Organization. 

Earlier this year, research released by Save the Children  with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) found that the difference between a global temperature rise of 1.5°C and 2.7°C could see 38 million more children from the 2020 birth cohort face unprecedented lifetime exposure to extreme heatwaves. [4]

Limiting warming temperatures through the rapid phase-out of the use and subsidy of fossil fuels is critical to prevent more children from facing exposure to extreme heat, Save the Children said.

Save the Children is appealing to governments, donors, and the international community to scale up funding to help current and future generations cope with climate shocks.

References:

*Name changed to protect anonymity. 

[1, 2] https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148886

[3] https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-report-documents-spiralling-weather-and-climate-impacts

[4] https://www.savethechildren.net/news/climate-change-third-5-year-olds-will-be-spared-unprecedented-lifetime-exposure-dangerous-heat