Lahore is sinking. The historic city that once stood as the cultural heart of Pakistan has been reduced to floating islands of despair. Streets have turned into rivers, cars into boats, and homes into shelters for misery. Entire societies like Park View are being evacuated as if war has broken out, but this time the enemy is not foreign. The enemy is water, overflowing uncontrollably from the Ravi and Chenab.
Sialkot,the proud city of exports, home to artisans who produce goods for the world, is half-submerged. Factories that once echoed with the rhythm of work now sit under murky waters. Chiniot too, with its centuries-old woodcraft heritage, lies drowned. Villages vanish in minutes, mosques collapse, schools are gutted, and crops are flattened. The aerial view is not of Pakistan, but of an ocean swallowing a land that has surrendered.This is not a storm of nature alone. It is a storm of political betrayal.
We are at a turning point. We can either rise to build or fall to drown. Our politics won’t stop the rivers from flowing. Every year, they will come back stronger, destroying all hypocrisies, slogans, and promises.We will drown annually in floods of water, poverty, and treachery if Pakistan does not take action right away
Clouds alone do not tell the story of Pakistan’s floods. It was written in the political corridors, where leaders used water as chesspieces, treating dams as negotiating chips rather than lifelines.The floods in Pakistan are not solely the result of clouds. Water was used as a rhetorical weapon in the political corridors where it was written. In the name of “provincial pride,” some people in the south cut off lifelines. Others proudly declared that dams would never be constructed after rising to prominence as the masses’ saviors. Their combined words sealed millions’ fates. Water reservoirs were viewed as negotiating chips rather than survival resources for many years. And each year, regular families lost their homes, crops, and lives as a result.
Water knows no politics, so the rivers are merciless. Decades of human neglect have resulted in Ravi and Chenab going on a rampage. In addition to Lahore, their wrath submerges Punjab’s pride in Sialkot, Chiniot, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad. At a time when Pakistan is already dealing with inflation, fields of wheat, rice, and sugarcane have been completely engulfed, costing billions of dollars in food supplies.
The devastation is astounding in terms of numbers: In a matter of days, more than 2 million acres of crops were destroyed. Families were left stranded on rooftops as hundreds of villages were evacuated. Sialkot’s billion-dollar factories sank, stopping exports. Numerous people were displaced, and dozens of lives were lost.Pakistan loses between $2 and $3 billion a year due to flood damage, but there is no effective flood protection. Just think of all the dams, reservoirs, and defensive walls that could have been constructed with this funding. Rather, after each flood, we rebuild only to see the waters get stronger.
Pakistan’s greatest asset and greatest drawback is its water resources. Countries such as China, India, and Turkey construct dams to generate electricity from floods. They irrigate crops, produce electricity, store water, and avert disasters. Turkey has more than 1,000 dams, India more than 5,000, and China alone more than 98,000. Pakistan? Only 150 large dams, the majority of which are silt-clogged, outdated, and inadequate.
Just Kalabagh could have produced 3600 MW of electricity, irrigated 2 million acres of farmland, and stored 6.1 million acre-feet of water. It might have stopped rivers from overflowing and transformed destructive floods into life-giving reservoirs. However, we repeatedly destroyed it through politics.Every drop that is currently drowning Pakistan serves as a reminder of every dam that was never constructed, every speech that was given in place of action, and every leader who prioritized rhetoric over survival.
Politicians deserve to be cursed, and it is easy to do so. However, we as a country are also guilty. Plastic waste has clogged our own rivers. The forests that used to protect villages from flooding have been destroyed. We construct illegal housing communities directly on floodplains, then we complain when the water removes them.Despite making up less than one percent of the world’s carbon emissions, Pakistan has made its own climate catastrophes worse. Our glaciers are melting, our rivers are contaminated, and our air is tainted. Floods reflect our own carelessness and are more than just a natural punishment.
The most heartbreaking irony? When floods occur each year, politicians show up in fancy cars to “inspect” the damage. They hand out bags of flour to cameras, roll up their pants, and pose for pictures in waist-deep water. After that, they depart, leaving the people to decay. Additionally, the administration will create “committees,” which are the tomb of all Pakistani issues.
2025 floods are more than just water-related. They serve as a warning. Pakistan is a precarious country that is drowning in rivers as well as in hypocrisy, corruption, and poor leadership.Despite having five powerful rivers and a population of 240 million, our nation is unable to store water. Every time a flood occurs, we plead with the world for help, but we waste billions on pointless projects and political rallies. Every year, we repeat the same cycle of betrayal as floods destroy lives, crops, and villages. This is not fate. This is a failure.
Pakistan cannot afford to be careless for another year. The choice is brutal and simple: build dams, or drown every year. Excuses are no longer acceptable. It is necessary to return to the Kalabagh Dam with bravery. Before history, politicians who oppose it must answer for their actions. Instead of being political footballs, dams on the Ravi, Chenab, and Indus must become national priorities. Reforestation, reservoir construction, and flood defenses must start today, not tomorrow.We also need to rise as citizens. Don’t construct illegal settlements in floodplains. Give up chopping down trees. Don’t treat rivers like trash cans. Climate change is real, and it won’t wait for us to be lazy.
Politics, not the rain or the natural world, is the reason Pakistan is drowning. Dams were blocked by politics. The governments that ignored it. And the country that slept through its own demise.
The truth that cannot be ignored is screamed by Lahore, Sialkot, and Chiniot today: water is life, but in Pakistan it has turned into death.
We are at a turning point. We can either rise to build or fall to drown. Our politics won’t stop the rivers from flowing. Every year, they will come back stronger, destroying all hypocrisies, slogans, and promises.We will drown annually in floods of water, poverty, and treachery if Pakistan does not take action right away.
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