Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters

Pakistan has been ranked the fifth most affected country in the world due to extreme weather events in recent decades. Throughout our research, participants highlighted experiences with the following extreme weather hazards and natural disasters: cloudbursts, flash flooding, landslides, earthquakes, drought and heat waves.

Landslides

Landslides are one of the most destructive climate phenomena — with the aftereffects compared to that of floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Landslides can be triggered by a variety of factors including soil erosion, heavy rains, earthquakes, and thunder in mountainous regions. While it is difficult to predict landslides, they often occur when heavy rains saturate the soil in a short period of time. Although landslides typically incur less damage to property than floods, they have been known to cause far more casualties.

“Landslides happen a lot more now because of rain puddling up in the cracks of the street – the rain fills up in the cracks and then begins to slide, taking the whole street and adjoining areas with them.”

Within our research scope, landslides were an issue raised by residents of AJK. One woman we interviewed spoke of the loss she experienced from a landslide:

“Another huge problem is landslides. While many in our community lost their homes to the 2005 earthquake, before this disaster, there was a landslide here. It wasn’t a big event but it totally wiped out my house. In my opinion, I see landslides happening because of deforestation.”

Throughout the research process in AJK, many participants expressed anxiety around the topic of landslides. Fearful of her children’s future, one woman in Patikka shared the following:

“Here [in Patikka], I am not so nervous about landslides, but near Muzaffarabad, there are so many landslides. Even on the way to Muzzaffarbad, there are landslides and it makes it really hard for transportation – people get stuck. It’s risky to travel during rainy seasons, you never know what is going to happen…. I do have fears for my children for the future - but Inshallah [God willing] I will try to contribute my efforts to raise them to be good human beings and protect this climate so they will not have as many challenges.”

Gabion walls are retaining walls made from wire mesh filled with local stone or quarry to retain the walls. The purpose of such walls is to control landsliding, soil erosion, and scouring during high velocity flows of water. Gabion walls are costeffective, durable, easy to construct and easy to repair if damaged.

In the mountains outside of Bagh, AJK, Islamic Relief has constructed gabion walls as part of the GAP project. This gabion wall pictured is protecting 10-15 households from sliding during unpredictable rainfalls. This gabion wall consists of two layers with sanatha bushes — a local indigenous species — planted above the walls to further anchor the soil with their strong roots.