Pakistan in Crisis: From Burning Heatwaves to Floods

In April 2025, Pakistan faced a dangerous heatwave with temperatures reaching 45 °C in parts of Punjab and Sindh. Cities like Lahore saw schools close, electricity shortages, and people struggling to stay cool. The heat came much earlier and stronger than usual, with temperatures 4–7 °C above normal.

Government data shows that nearly one in three school-age children in Pakistan (over 26 million) are not attending school, placing the country among those with the highest out-of-school populations globally. Furthermore, about 65% of children struggle to read basic texts by the age of 10. These educational challenges extend across most regions, including Punjab, which, despite having the best school attendance rates, is still affected by widespread closures due to heatwaves.

“During a power outage, I was sweating so much… a girl in my class had a nosebleed,” said 15-year-old Jannat from Lahore.

“The class becomes so hot that it feels like we are sitting in a brick kiln,” said 17-year-old Hafiz Ehtesham outside an inner-city Lahore school.

Additionally, as of June 2025, Pakistan is bracing for severe climate-driven floods due to accelerated glacial melting and early monsoon shifts. Over 3,000 glacial lakes, mostly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, pose a major risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), especially with rising temperatures recorded in May. Authorities report that 16 districts are on high alert. Ongoing and floods from the past events have polluted drinking water sources and damaged sanitation systems, health experts warn of cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea outbreaks, especially among children and those in crowded slum areas.

Without better early warning systems and infrastructure, thousands in Pakistan could be displaced.

Factors like record high atmospheric and ocean temperatures, and very low Arctic Sea ice cover, make extreme weather events more frequent globally.

Read more about extreme weather here.