At least 144 people died as a result of the heavy rains in April.
According to the country’s weather agency, Pakistan experienced the “wettest April since 1961,” recording more than twice as much rain as usual for the month.
Rainfall in April was 59.3 mm (2.3 inches), “excessively above” the normal average of 22.5 mm (0.9 inches), the metrology department said in its monthly climate report released late Friday.
The highest rainfall, 437 percent more than average, was recorded in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
At least 144 people were killed in the storms and house collapses caused by heavy rain in April.
The highest death toll was reported in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 84 people died, including 38 children, and more than 3,500 houses were damaged.
While much of Asia is sweltering due to heatwaves, Pakistan’s national monthly temperature was 23.67 degrees Celsius (74.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in April, 0.87 degrees Celsius below the average of 24.54 degrees Celsius, it said Report further.
“Climate change is a major factor affecting the erratic weather patterns in our region,” Pakistan Meteorological Department spokesman Zaheer Ahmad Babar said of the report.
In 2022, rainfall caused rivers to swell and temporarily flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods caused $30 billion in damage, which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild. Balochistan received 590 percent more rainfall than average this year, while Karachi received 726 percent more rainfall than usual.
“The flash floods caused extensive damage to large areas of cultivated land, particularly wheat crops that were ready for harvest,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a recent report.
“This has resulted in significant economic losses for local farmers and communities, exacerbating the losses caused by the rain-related incidents,” it said.
Meanwhile, parts of Pakistan have also been hit by heatwaves and severe air pollution, which experts say are exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and ineffective governance.
“We now experience climate change-related incidents almost every year. However, we are not prepared for it,” environmental lawyer and activist Ahmad Rafay Alam told the AFP news agency.
“It is the responsibility of our provincial and federal governments to prioritize climate relief and mitigation measures. However, their focus appears to be primarily on political matters,” Alam added.