Manzoor Hussain Khoso, a 64-year-old farmer from Pakistan’s Sindh province, had long enjoyed a prosperous life on his 16-acre farm, providing for his family of nine with wheat and rice cultivation. However, everything changed in August 2022 when unprecedented floods transformed his village into a vast lake, submerging it for nearly two months.
Khoso recalled, “I lost all my crops, and though the government promised us wheat seeds, we received nothing.”
The devastating floods took a toll nationwide, claiming over 1,700 lives, affecting 33 million people, and displacing an estimated eight million. Additionally, 9.4 million acres of crops were destroyed, and more than 1.1 million farm animals perished.
As the floodwaters receded and cotton harvesting resumed in much of Sindh, residents of the country’s second most-populous province—ranging from landowners to small-scale farmers, manual laborers to government employees—revealed that they continue to grapple with food insecurity over a year later. Khoso lamented, “We still live in tents and borrow money to make ends meet.”
Climate change experts attribute the flood catastrophe to climate change. However, equally crippling have been the political and economic crises that followed, resulting in skyrocketing food and energy prices, plummeting currency values, and a growing populace unable to afford essential goods and services.
Wazir Ali, a 42-year-old farmer with 40 acres of land near Khairpur Nathan Shah, a major town in northern Sindh, expressed, “Everyone in flood-affected areas has lost their livelihoods, and due to inflation, they have no means to support themselves.”
Pakistan’s political turmoil, exacerbated by the no-confidence motion that ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has diverted attention from addressing the struggling economy and sidelined the humanitarian response in regions like Sindh.
In June, Pakistan, with its population of 241 million, narrowly averted default by securing a $3 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund. The deal came with conditions, including raising fuel prices. Recent protests against surging petrol and electricity costs have escalated into violence, further exacerbating the multifaceted crises facing the nation.
