Pakistan has already received 50% more rainfall than this time last year during the monsoon season, which peaks between June and September.
ISLAMABAD, 19 August 2025 – Three times as many people have died in torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan since the start of July compared to the same period last year, with the death toll reaching more than 700, including 173 children, since the rains started, Save the Children said [1].
Pakistan has already received 50% more rainfall than this time last year during the monsoon season, which peaks between June and September, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and more rain is forecast.
More than 300 people have died in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 15 August after cloudbursts - a rare weather phenomenon in which more than 100mm of rain falls within an hour in a highly concentrated area - triggered massive downpours and flash floods. [1] [2].
About 60 schools have been damaged or destroyed in the province, potentially impacting education for up to 8,000 children when classes start at the end of August, according to preliminary data from the provincial authorities.
This year’s monsoon season has caused destruction across Asia. Research from Save the Children found that for children born in 2020, if global temperature rise is limited to 1.5°C, about 5 million would be spared from unprecedented lifetime exposure to river floods. Despite having contributed the least to the climate crisis, children are bearing the brunt of its impacts – particularly children most impacted by inequality and discrimination and in low and middle-income countries, like Pakistan [3].
Families in the devastated districts told Save the Children that children are waking up crying at night, worried that the floods will come again. An analysis of immediate needs found that clean water is in short supply, with children suffering from diarrhoea. Parents have said they have reduced meals due to food shortages, with one man telling the research team: “We have lost our crops and animals...there is nothing left to sell or eat.”
Save the Children in Pakistan, and its partner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), are working to deliver life-saving aid, including household and hygiene kits, clean drinking water, mobile health and nutrition clinics, and temporary learning and safe spaces for children who cannot return to their damaged schools. Many roads have been blocked by landslides, cutting off communications and hampering rescue efforts.
More than 2,900 homes have been damaged or destroyed across Pakistan since the onset of the monsoon season in the last week of June, with more than 29,000 people currently living in emergency camps [1].
Khuram Gondal, Country Director, Save the Children Pakistan, said:
“Children in Pakistan are yet again losing their lives, their homes, their schools to floods. In 2022, when about 1,700 people died in historic floods, we said ‘never again’ – but climate change is making deaths and disaster due to extreme rainfall an annual reality.
“Children and their families had little or no time to pack, to run, or to get to higher ground to escape the fast-flowing flood waters caused by unpredictable cloudbursts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now, thousands need shelter, clean water and food as the monsoon rain continues.
“We need to act now to ensure that the immediate impacts of the torrential rains do not become long-term problems. Governments must tackle the underlying causes of these climate driven disasters, including channelling funding and support to children and their families in Pakistan to adapt, recover and rebuild their lives and livelihoods.”
Save the Children has been working in Pakistan since 1979 and was the first international NGO to respond to the 2022 floods emergency, reaching more than 1.1 million people in flood-affected areas, including about 600,000 children. Save the Children co-leads the Education in Emergencies (EiE) Working Group in Pakistan.
ENDS
References
[1] https://www.ndma.gov.pk/sitrepm. According to daily sit reps from the NDMA and information at time of writing from the NDMA’s live dashboard, 649 people were killed in rain-related incidents 1 July-19 August 2025.
https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/ndma-monsoon-2024-daily-situation-report-no-50-19-august-2024 215 people were killed in rain-related incidents, 1 July-19 August 2024.
[2] https://www.pdma.gov.pk/maps/12 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority
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