Vanishing River Eggs and Deadly Floods: Pakistan’s frightening Climate Crisis

Asif Mohmand

At least 279 people died and more then 600 injured in early predicted harsh monsoon in Pakistan, devastating monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across Pakistan. The country has witnessed intense rains, storms and flash floods since June 26 till the end of July, from the capital Islamabad to remote villages, in various viral videos across the country, cars submerged in floodwaters, tourists in the northern areas, children and women sinking have shocked the nation. The Pakistan Meteorological Department PMD admitted that extreme weather events increasing in last 15 years, and the experts link this surge in extreme weather events to climate change, while some experts believe that Pakistan’s floods have a different tale. Why do floods occur? Who is responsible for the disappearance of river eggs? Why is Pakistan so vulnerable to flooding? Were the floods that predate human civilization purely destructive, or can floods also bringing benefits.

River Swat lost its eggs

In the northern Pakistan, Swat district inhabitants have a century old saying! “The stones are the eggs of river and one day the river will come to hatch them”. This adage was the sign of harmony with nature for the natives on the banks of Swat River, which is now buried under tons of concrete. In past, whenever people start digging around the river for house or agricultural purposes and find smooth stones during excavating, they would immediately discard their intention, because they stink that the flood water would come here one day, and it can vanished their dreams. On June 27, 13 tourists who had lost their lives in floods had no idea what the river's "eggs" actually meant, a mystery equally lost on both the government and local residents. For years now, both legally and illegally, they’ve been cashing in by swallowing the river’s stones, all while turning a blind eye to the meaning behind them.

In Sanskrit, the Swat River is known as "Suvastu," meaning clear blue water. The River originates from the glaciers of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the Ushu and Gabral streams in Kalam. After traveling approximately 240 KM, it joins the Kabul River in Charsadda District. As the lifeline of the Swat Valley, it has long sustained the scholarly and cultural heart of the Gandhara civilisation, and was a major hub of Buddhist astronomy pilgrimage.

On June 27, while the world was watching the video of 13 unaided tourists drowning in the Swat river flood, a journalist friend of Swat, Arif Ahmad Yousafzai Multimedia Journalist, was contacted for the updates. Arif has heard river eggs saying from his grandfather and many stories of flash floods. Arif has reported the government and state apathy towards rescuing tourists in the recent floods. However, he desolately told about those who have a lodge of historical rituals that those people have passed away for 40 years. The eggs, which were a flood forecast for the local’s acres away from the river, have now come to the bottom of the river by the government and non-government people to grab it. Arif lamented that legal and illegal people mining river crush, heave machinery digging river while the government generate revenue from the same, similarly hotels mafias grabbing the banks. Responding to a question on locals recue, he said if the incident was occurred in upper swat locals may save the tourists, as in monsoon they usually keep ropes and other equipments for such incidents. According to Arif, people in upper Swat still understand the behavior of the river. However, in the area where the incident occurred, Bypass Fizagat locals have turned the land into a tourist spot to earn money. They rent out or sell plots for hotels to outsiders and they don’t know the nature of the river especially in monsoon, concrete buildings on river bank blocking the water flow and one of the reason it increased the water flow resulting damages.

Flood Alerts in Ancient Myths

Just as for centuries in Swat, the local people used to guess with smooth stones that flood water could reach here, in the same way, the ancient myths were also warned of floods, and it would not be wrong to say that the giants of different civilizations are incomplete without floods. The great flood and storm in Chinese civilization was informed prior by the Dragon God, people living on the banks of the Yellow River known as Huanghe, one of china's largest rivers, received alerts before great flood. Similarly, in “Babylonia” Civilization, when the Gods decided to destroy the world with the mighty flood, one of the God, warned the sovereign of the plan to destroy the world by flood and told him to prepare a large fleet for his family, friends and wealth. Similarly, in the Sumerian mythology, The Leader King Gilgamesh, was warned by God in advance to be safe from floods. Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations existed in Mesopotamia, both of which lived on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates River; these were the areas of the Middle East that we call the areas of Iraq, Kuwait and Syria in the present day. Historians also link prior information about floods in Mesopotamia to Islamic preaching’s, where God warned Noah about the great flood and ordered him to build a large fleet and protect himself with a pair of wild animals with his family and flowers. After the 2010 Pakistan mega floods, Change through Empowerment a nongovernmental organization, with the support of Meherdar has published a detailed book titled "Do not stop the flood, create a Way” where many writings on flood disasters, especially in Balochistan, flood relief and flood history are discussed. According to the book, the legends of Greeks and Hindus also make it clear that these people were informed in advance of the storms.

Flood Information and rescue system

On May 29, 2025, a month before the Swat floods, the Pakistan Meteorological Department in collaboration with the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System organized a Climate Application Forum in Islamabad. In the forum, alerts were issued for heavy stormy rains, hot temperatures and flash floods in the pre-monsoon. At the event top officials of national and provincial institutions, academic circles, agriculture and especially disaster management agencies National Disaster Management Authority NDMA and Provincial Disaster Management Authority PDMA officials pledged to deal with the disasters. The flood alerts system in not that much complicated, the meteorological department warns NDMA and PDMA and the PDMA informed district administration in advance, while the district administration informs the Rescue department in advance about the flood. This happened in the Swat flood, timely information was received, but due to lack of protective equipments, the floods lost precious lives of tourists.

If seen, the same early warning system existed even before 100 years. In 1929-28, flood alerts in the North West Frontier Province presently Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were similarly reported to various districts or divisions. Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Mellam, a British Indian Army officer and political representative who served as a political officer in the North-Western Province for a long time, in his book "Thirty Years on the North West Frontier" has told the story of people's surprise at the advance information about floods. "When we received information about glacier bursts earlier than usual, the eastern edge of Mardan district was located on the flood path which was the site of my next deployment, writes Mellam. As a sub-divisional officer, advance information of possible floods made it my primary responsibility to shift villages along the rivers to higher reaches. The locals believed in destiny. I told the village elders, 'The flood is coming; it will destroy your houses and livestock. It is important for you to migrate from here. There was a blank look on their faces, and I would often say on such occasions that Allah is the Master”. According to Mellam, there was a false rumor of floods before, so people did not believe us. But later there was a huge flood and caused a lot of damage to the people.

It should be noted that since 1857, when the British took full control, they build Weather Stations in subcontinent to monitor the seasons regularly. Based on Weather station data the districts were protected from disasters. What’s surprising is that system still exists today, but 100 years ago there was no helicopter for rescue, now Pakistan has helicopters as well as warships. In case of natural disaster emergency, the district administration seeks help from the PDMA to get helicopter service, while PDMA requests the NDMA and NDMA request The XI Corps Pakistan Army. A PDMA official said that no request was received from the district administration about helicopter. After 27 June incidents departments blames each other, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur transferred the deputy commissioner after the incident, while two assist commissioners and rescue district in-charge were dismissed. The Chief Minister has initiated action against illegal encroachments on the river bank, but according to locals, hotels of High profile people have not been touched in this operation. Arif said it is a political stunt, this initiative may cover the incident but who will bring the missing eggs which are lost since 40 years in promoting tourism and development.

Don't stop the flood in climate crisis

To understand how to control floods, one has to understand floods. Floods are natural disaster, according to several scientific studies, rivers originated about three to four billion years ago, when the earth's surface cooled and stabilized and liquid water formed. Flooding has been a natural process since then. Water from rain and melting glaciers flowed into low-lying areas. There were no plants or animals in that era, but there were floods, science studies confirm. Prior to human habitation, rivers played an important role in the formation of ecosystems. With this flowing water, human civilizations have grown-up. However, for the last three centuries, human activities in the pursuit of innovation and development have added greenhouse gases to the earth's atmosphere, resulting in a climate crisis. According to the United Nations led organizations and independent scientific research’s the world is now facing a climate crisis. Natural disasters that used to come after the break can now happen every year. Global temperatures are gradually rising, resulting in years of frozen snow melting, and changes in rainfall times have increased the risk of flooding.

The UNEP Frontiers 2025 report explores emerging environmental challenges threatening people and ecosystems. It highlights four major issues: reactivation of ancient microbes from melting permafrost, the need to remove barriers to restore river systems, the vulnerability of ageing populations to environmental risks, and the re-release of legacy pollutants during floods. The report warns that irreversible cryospheric changes and microbial threats could affect ecosystems, health, and climate resilience. In a tech-Driven Age and manifold rescue agencies and systems, why do we still fall victim to extreme weather events? This is a critical question. The tragedy is that we are neither learning from past disasters nor understanding the greatest challenge of our time: the climate crisis. We may consider ourselves developed or the most intelligent species in this ecosystem, yet we remain unable to cope with climate change. Our model of development itself is making us more vulnerable to the crisis. To tackle this catastrophe, we must understand the ecosystem and rethink our approach towards development. If we fail to act today, future generations may not be able to withstand the consequences of this crisis.

The writer Asif Mohmand is an independent multimedia climate journalist in Pakistan and can be reached @AsifkhanJmc