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s the monsoon clouds gather, a sense of fear arises for those living along the banks of the Chenab River in Southern Punjab. Each raindrop brings back memories of chaos, displacement and destruction. It has been over a decade since the disastrous floods of 2014, the worst in Multan’s recorded history. For many, the trauma is still fresh.
Nasreen, a resident of Tibba Masoodpur, recalls: “My youngest had just started walking when the flood came. I can still picture myself carrying him in my arms as we climbed to the top of the Sikanderi Canal. That’s where we sat, with nothing but our children.”
Government officials had urged people to evacuate. “We didn’t know what was going on,” says Nasreen. “They put us on boats and took us to a safer place. We sat under the open sky for two days. Then we moved in with some relatives. Of those twenty days, all I can remember is hunger, pain and shame,” she says.
Their home, a mud house, didn’t withstand the force of the flood. “The walls collapsed. The cracks are still there. We have painted them over.”
A decade later, Nasreen says that with every heavy rain a sense of dread sets in. “The last monsoon took down a wall. We fear for a disaster every monsoon. It’s not just the water; we worry about losing our roof, crops and our peace of mind. Every drop reminds us of what we lost and what we could lose again.”
In early September 2014, a seven-day wet spell in the upper Chenab catchment led to riverine floods downstream. The peak discharge of over 0.6 million cubic feet per second near Multan inundated vast stretches of land. According to the study Riverine Flood Mapping and Impact Assessment: A Case Study of Chenab Flood 2014 in Pakistan, the flood spilled over riverbanks and breached several embankments. As a result, ready-to-harvest crops as well as homes, livestock and critical infrastructure were submerged.
The disaster affected more than 688,000 hectares of cropped land, inundated 2,900 villages, and displaced over 500,000 people. In Multan alone, 116,500 people from 121 villages were forced to evacuate as strategic breaches were made in dykes to save the city centre, diverting floodwater towards rural belts. Twenty kilometres from Pul Muzaffarabad lies Shershah Bund, an embankment that collapsed under pressure during the 2014 flood. That breach led to a massive influx of water into the surrounding settlements.
Haseena, 45, still lives at the Shershah embankment. She recalls the moment water entered her home. “I was sitting in this house when the water began to pour in,” she says. “We turned our charpoy into a boat and left everything behind. Back then, we only had one room, which collapsed. Now we have three... we built these with our own hands, without help from anybody.”
“I remember everything,” Haseena says. “It’s something you can’t erase from your mind. We went hungry and thirsty. We survived on whatever was left.”
The 2014 flood wasn’t an isolated event. In August 2022, Pakistan witnessed another catastrophic flood across southern Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. The flood submerged a third of the country, killing 1,486 people, inundating 4 million hectares of agricultural land and impacting an estimated 33 million citizens across the country. Entire ecosystems, farmlands, homes and lives were wiped away.
Prepared?
Farooq Ahmed, the Rescue 1122 spokesperson, outlines the province’s disaster preparedness mechanisms. “Before every monsoon season, we ensure all our equipment and vehicles are functional. Every district is assigned to identify vulnerable areas in advance.”
“I remember everything,” Haseena says. “It’s something you can’t erase easily from your mind. We went hungry and thirsty. We survived on whatever was left.”
“We run two types of exercises: community outreach and mock exercises. There is no place in the Punjab where we cannot reach,” he states. In vulnerable districts like Dera Ghazi Khan, evacuation plans have already been prepared. “We are monitoring all potential threats,” Ahmed says.
Aamir Kareem Khan, Multan’s divisional commissioner, confirms that the administration is actively preparing for floods. “We have twelve camps at various low-lying areas,” he says. “Disposal stations have been provided standby generators, and our new WASA machinery is operational.”
Additionally, the Multan Waste Management Company has been engaged, and the administration is utilising social media to monitor and respond in real-time.
“We have already surveyed unsafe buildings; there are over 200 of them. Some have been renovated; others will receive evacuation notices soon if not improved,” he says.
Muhammad Rafiq, a 66-year-old shopkeeper, recalls the devastation. “This shop didn’t exist then. If it did, I would have lost it.” “Crops were ruined. Diseases spread among animals and people. We lost money, food and hope.”
Rafiq, like many others, talks of the uphill task of moving on. “It felt impossible. Every year we hold our breath, fearful that something might happen again. It always does. How can we truly move on when we find ourselves caught in the same storm year after year?”
Abdul Rehman, the disaster management coordinator for Multan division at the PDMA, says that a comprehensive flood risk survey is currently under way across hill torrent and riverine zones.
“We are identifying flood-prone areas, assessing population size, health and education access, evacuation routes and livestock counts,” says Rehman, who is headquartered at the Commissioner’s Office in Multan. “The survey began from the Indus and will now move towards the Chenab, followed by the Ravi and Sutlej River systems.”
He says that 124 areas in the Multan district have been marked as vulnerable. For these areas, 24 designated relief camp sites have already been selected and will be equipped with basic facilities. “Our preparations are finalised before June 15. This includes coordination with the Health and Livestock Departments to ensure human and animal healthcare services at camps.”
He adds that while the removal of encroachments along riverbanks is essential to allow water flow, it remains a complex issue due to human settlements acting as physical barriers. “That’s why we collaborate closely with community leaders to gather ground-level information and establish early warning systems that reach people.”
The writer is a freelance multimedia journalist in Multan.