Floods in Pakistan: How to help

Since June, relentless monsoon rains have unleashed flash floods and landslides across Pakistan. The northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (known locally as KPK) has borne the brunt of this disaster. Surrounded by mountain ranges, entire villages and communities have been cut off from humanitarian aid while landslides wreak havoc on homes, schools, and infrastructure.

The province’s Buner District has seen some of the highest rates of devastation. Buner was hit by a cloudburst, a rare weather phenomenon in which a violent downpour leads to over 4 inches of water falling within an hour — the equivalent of several hours’ worth of rain falling in just a few seconds.

» Learn more about the 2025 floods in Pakistan

The 2022 monsoon season in Pakistan was the worst on record, affecting over 33 million people, killing over 1,700, and displacing between 2 and 8 million. Three years later, millions of families are still working to recover — including many in KPK, Sindh, Punjab, and Gilgit-Baltistan provinces, who have now been impacted by this year’s rains.

More than one-third of Pakistan’s workforce earn their living through agriculture. This leaves millions of Pakistanis at risk — particularly those who have the fewest resources to safeguard their lives and livelihoods against the elements. The 2022 floods submerged one-third of the country and cost Pakistan $14.9 billion in damages and $16.3 billion in recovery. Nearly 10 million acres of farmland were washed away. They also pushed 9 million people into poverty — roughly one-quarter of the workforce employed in agriculture.

Last year, Pakistan also faced one of its most intense heat waves with temperatures soaring up to 49°C (120°F) in Sindh province. It also ranks 21 with a high-risk score of 6.4 on the Inform-Risk Index, which measures hazards, vulnerability and coping mechanisms.

With new poverty line measurement guidelines released earlier this year by the World Bank, approximately 45% of Pakistan's population lives below the poverty line for lower-middle-income countries. That's equivalent to over 107 million people living on less than $4.20 per day.