Emergency workers in Pakistan’s Punjab province are facing a crisis of historic proportions as record-breaking monsoon rains and surging river flows have unleashed the worst floods the region has ever seen. With nearly two million people affected and more than 900,000 already evacuated, the province’s response has combined high-tech innovation, hands-on leadership, and a massive humanitarian effort to save lives and livelihoods.
Punjab, home to 150 million people and the agricultural heartland of Pakistan, has been battered by weeks of heavier-than-normal rainfall. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the province received 26.5% more monsoon rain between July 1 and August 27, 2025, compared to the same period last year. To make matters worse, neighboring India released huge volumes of water from its swollen dams and rivers last week, causing the Ravi, Chenab, and Sutlej rivers to overflow into Punjab’s low-lying districts. The result: vast stretches of farmland submerged, entire villages cut off, and thousands of homes destroyed.
Faced with these unprecedented challenges, Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has emerged as the public face of the province’s fight against disaster. Setting up a round-the-clock “war room” in Lahore’s Provincial Control Room, she has overseen the coordination of commissioners, rescue services, police, and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. “This is the biggest flood in Punjab’s history, but no citizen will be left behind,” she vowed. “Every resource of the government is being employed to save lives and livelihoods.”
Maryam Nawaz’s leadership has not just been about issuing orders from afar. She has personally visited flood-hit areas, traveling by rescue boat along the Ravi River at Shahdara and instructing local administrations to ensure that “every life is precious” and that no family is left stranded. Her approach, blending high-visibility fieldwork with technology-driven coordination, has been widely recognized as a test of governance in an era where climate change is amplifying South Asia’s vulnerabilities.
Technology has played a starring role in the rescue operations. Punjab is the first province in Pakistan to deploy drone technology for disaster response on such a scale. Surveillance drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras, satellite data, and Safe City CCTV networks have been used to locate stranded people and animals in difficult-to-access regions. In districts like Jhang, Sialkot, and Gujrat, about 800 rescues were carried out using drone surveillance alone. In Jhang’s Semi-Pul Bypass Sargodha Road area, for example, five individuals and their livestock were successfully traced and rescued after drones located them in rising waters. Similar operations are underway in Chishtian and Bahawalnagar, where drones are monitoring river belts and guiding rescue teams.
Beyond search and rescue, the drones are also being used to track rescue boats, improve coordination, and detect submerged victims and livestock. According to Irfan Ali Kathia, director general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority, “We are handling an unprecedented situation, and we are responding to Punjab’s biggest-ever floods by using the latest technology and all available resources to save lives.”
Despite these efforts, the human cost of the floods is staggering. On roadside embankments, displaced families have complained of being abandoned. “We have been destroyed. Everything is gone in the flood,” said Haleema Bibi, 54, who fled her damaged home in Jhang with seven relatives. Now sheltering under the open sky without tents or food, she told the Associated Press, “Whatever we had to eat has nearly finished. You can see how miserably we are living.”
Another resident, Allah Ditta, described sleeping on plastic sheets and carts. “Rescuers came once by boat, but no one has brought us supplies. We keep looking to the road, hoping someone will come with help,” he said. While authorities claim to have set up more than 1,000 relief camps, government figures show that only about 36,550 evacuees are housed in them, leaving it unclear where the vast majority of those displaced are staying.
The challenges are not limited to human suffering. More than 600,000 farm animals have been moved to safety, and high-quality cattle feed—such as "Anmol Vanda"—is being distributed in relief camps across flood-hit areas like Pakpattan, Hafizabad, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Bahawalpur, and Vehari. The flooding has submerged wheat and cash crops, raising fears of food shortages and inflation in the months ahead, echoing the devastation seen during the catastrophic 2022 floods.
Relief teams are distributing food hampers and providing three cooked meals daily in rescue camps, while tents and bedding are supplied for families who choose not to leave their homes. Hospitals have been prioritized in emergency dewatering operations to ensure uninterrupted medical services, even as entire neighborhoods in cities like Islamabad have been inundated by sudden cloudbursts and heavy rains.
In a powerful display of solidarity, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered a special dewatering operation at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, a sacred Sikh site that had been inundated. The shrine has since been restored to a safe, dry condition, underscoring the government’s commitment to protecting both people and cultural heritage.
Not all stories from the front lines have happy endings. Assistant Commissioner Pattoki Furqan Ahmed Khan died of a cardiac arrest after four consecutive days of flood relief duty, despite battling cancer. He had overseen the distribution of food, medicine, and shelter to displaced families. Paying tribute, Maryam Nawaz described him as a “true hero” and an enduring symbol of duty and selflessness. The provincial government has approved Punjab’s highest civil award in his honor and announced a grant of Rs10 million for his family.
Meanwhile, the crisis has also spilled across borders. In India, at least five people were killed in landslides caused by torrential rains in northern Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh states, and authorities in India’s Punjab state shut schools and colleges as the rains continued. Last month, at least 125 people were killed in floods in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
With the monsoon season typically lasting until the end of September, the Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned of more heavy rain in Punjab and other flood-hit regions. At least 854 people have died nationwide in rain-related incidents since late June 2025. The crisis has laid bare the region’s vulnerability to climate change and the urgent need for resilient disaster management strategies.
As Punjab continues to battle its worst floods on record, the province’s response—led by Maryam Nawaz Sharif and powered by technology, community effort, and sacrifice—offers a glimpse of hope amid devastation. The coming weeks will test the limits of resilience, compassion, and innovation as Pakistan confronts the mounting threats of a changing climate.