either monsoons nor disasters are new to Pakistan. July to September are predictably the months of torrential rains, glacial melt, flash floods and surging rivers. Climate change has intensified their ferocity and multiplied their vagaries. Technology has equipped decision makers, as well as commoners, with a reasonable prognosis of emerging weather trends, inter alia precipitation, temperature, riverine and torrential floods and early warning on abnormal weather events. Amid all these advances, disasters continue to recur. Preparedness is of paramount importance to avert climatic cataclysms. In the long term, resilient adaptation is key to mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change on the entire spectrum of life, including economy, health, livelihood and food security.

Information needs to be processed into timely action to avoid catastrophes. On June 27, 18 members of a family lost their lives in a tragic incident in Swat. The incident was a testimony to reckless tourism, shoddy emergency response systems and an overall administrative decay. An official probe into the tragedy unmasked sheer administrative failures, lethargy of the emergency rescue service and structures built in violation of the flood zone. As a customary response, local administration swung into belated action and demolished some illegally built private structures, including marble factories, stone-crushing plants and guesthouses.

The Swat River bank, especially near Mingora, is dotted with unauthorised........

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