{"id":109006,"date":"2025-09-02T11:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T11:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109006\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T11:41:07","slug":"fear-haunts-us-pakistans-floods-leave-mental-scars-long-after-waters-recede-global-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109006\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fear haunts us\u2019: Pakistan\u2019s floods leave mental scars long after waters recede | Global development"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a 10-year-old, the loss is proving hard to grasp. \u201cIt has been four days since I last saw my home,\u201d says Ahsan. He has not yet understood that the floods completely swept away his house in Dogoro Basha village in Shigar, Pakistan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His confusion is part of the devastating aftermath of long months of rain and floods<\/a> that have devastated thousands of families in the country\u2019s northern provinces and left more than 860 people dead so far.<\/p>\n

For Muhammad Shareef, 19, a university student living away from home in Islamabad, the distance does not help. His home in Dogoro Basha was also destroyed, and his family is now displaced. \u201cMy house and land are gone. My mother is now living in a tent. The only thing I have left standing is my father\u2019s grave [marker],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The school has been destroyed. The only dispensary was swept away. Our children\u2019s future is at stakeSajjad Ali Khan<\/p>\n

Since the end of June, and throughout July and August, torrential rains and flash floods have battered Pakistan, mostly the regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. According to the country\u2019s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)<\/a>, more than 800 people have died and more than 1,100 have been injured.<\/p>\n

More than half of the deaths happened when people were caught by flash floods, with others crushed by collapsing houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only a physical disaster but a mental health crisis,\u201d says Shan-e-Zainab, a Karachi-based clinical psychologist and mental health trainer. \u201cAfter a flood, people frequently suffer acute stress reactions, helplessness, shock and terror.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany develop survivor\u2019s guilt, sleep problems, intrusive memories or overwhelming sadness after losing homes, jobs or loved ones,\u201d she says. \u201cWithout proper support, these reactions often deepen into depression, prolonged grief or post-traumatic stress disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasir Khan, 81, sits in the remains of his village after flooding in Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The destruction has been immense. The NDMA reports that across the country more than 9,000 houses have been damaged and more than 2,000 completely destroyed. Displacement is widespread: at least 25,927 people are living in 308 relief camps across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 3,140 people are sheltering in 11 camps in Gilgit-Baltistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people died because of the thunderstorm,\u201d says Sher Nawab, 38, a farmer from Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. \u201cThose who were outside tried to save their lives, but the people inside their houses could not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, survival is now shadowed by a sense of dread. \u201cWe lost our corn crops and livestock,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what haunts us is the fear, God forbid, if it rains again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur high school is two hours away; one of the students was swept away by the flood on his way there. The schools are closed now; children are sitting idle at home, and some have lost their books in the water,\u201d Nawab says.<\/p>\n

Sajjad Ali Khan, a village elder in Gilgit-Baltistan\u2019s Kunduz valley, describes a similar reality. \u201cIn my village, there were about 150 houses. More than half have been affected by the floods,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople are not able to live in the village. They have left and gone to tents.\u201d<\/p>\n

People were cut off for weeks, like islands in a vast lake, with no food \u2026 that is collective psychological tortureYasir Darya<\/p>\n

Life in displacement, he adds, is marked by uncertainty. \u201cThe children\u2019s school has also been destroyed. The only dispensary in our area was swept away. Our children\u2019s future is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

In videos shown to the Guardian by a villager from Gilgit-Baltistan, boys explain how the floods have disrupted their lives. \u201cOur schools are closed; we can\u2019t go to class any more,\u201d says one. Another says: \u201cWe don\u2019t have clean drinking water.\u201d A third adds simply: \u201cWe are living in tents now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emergency officials witness this misery first-hand. \u201cFear and panic are always the first reaction,\u201d says Muhammad Sohail, a media coordinator for Rescue 1122, a government disaster emergency service in Buner.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany victims are in shock, unable to comprehend what has happened. Those who have lost family members go through intense grief; others show helplessness, especially when they have lost their homes or means of livelihood,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rescue workers in Buner prepare antibiotics and other medications for people displaced by the floods. Photograph: Arshad Arbab\/EPA<\/p>\n

He adds that rescue workers also carry invisible scars. \u201cRescuers are human. We see death, destruction and grieving families constantly. The emotional burden of not being able to save everyone is very heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For climate experts, the floods are not anomalies but warnings. \u201cThis is not just climate change, it is a climate emergency,\u201d says Yasir Darya, founder of the Climate Action Centre in Karachi.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause of global warming, the weather patterns have shifted. The Earth\u2019s systems are permanently damaged,\u201d Darya says.<\/p>\n

He points to the catastrophic floods in 2022<\/a>, which killed at least 1,700 people, as a turning point. According to the World Bank\u2019s post-disaster assessment<\/a>, they displaced more than 8 million people and led to economic losses of $30bn (\u00a326bn), making it the most devastating disaster in Pakistan\u2019s recorded history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies lost their homes, land, livestock and everything they had worked for,\u201d says Darya. \u201cIn many valleys, people were cut off for weeks, like islands in a vast lake, with no food or medicine reaching them. That is collective psychological torture.\u201d<\/p>\n

People look at the damage after flash floods in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Photograph: Bilawal Arbab\/EPA<\/p>\n

Zainab says trauma manifests itself differently in different age groups. \u201cAdults often show increased anxiety, anger, insomnia and withdrawal, while children may struggle in school, have recurring nightmares, or revert to earlier behaviours such as bed-wetting or clinginess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where mental health support is lacking, she says, trauma becomes chronic. \u201cIt can lead to substance abuse, long-term anxiety or depression in adults, and serious emotional regulation problems in children. Trauma can even be passed from generation to generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Repeated exposure to disasters magnifies the impact. \u201cThe disturbance of safety and healing brings an ongoing sense of powerlessness and hypervigilance,\u201d Zainab says. \u201cThe risk of developing PTSD, depression and learned helplessness, where people feel unable to cope with ongoing crises, rises with every new flood.<\/p>\n

A man stands in his damaged home in Pishoreen village, Buner. Photograph: M Sajjad\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important is psychological first aid, ensuring safety, meeting basic needs, offering emotional support without pressuring survivors to relive details, providing clear information, and helping people reconnect with family and community,\u201d she says. \u201cEarly interventions like these significantly reduce the likelihood of chronic psychiatric problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fewer than 500 psychiatrists serve 240 million people in Pakistan, however, and most of them are based in the major cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mental health system lacks the tools to address climate-linked trauma,\u201d says Zainab. \u201cThere are too few professionals, not enough community-based services, and stigma remains strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need are disaster-response policies that integrate mental health, training for volunteers and health workers in psychological support, mobile mental health services in vulnerable areas, and nationwide awareness campaigns to fight stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the northern provinces, survivors are all too aware that the floods will return and things may never go back to normal. \u201cWe can rebuild homes,\u201d says Nawab, \u201cbut fear stays in the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Shareef, in Islamabad, worry is now a constant companion when he travels to his village. \u201cWe might survive the day,\u201d he says, \u201cDuring the day, I might feel safe. But at night, I am worried. I\u2019m not sure what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a 10-year-old, the loss is proving hard to grasp. \u201cIt has been four days since I last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-109006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}