Pakistan, April 20 -- Normally, April is not a month of rain, what to say of heavy rainfall but in our part of the world, this has gradually become a mini-monsoon. For the past three days, the unrelenting rains lashing Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Kashmir have been a wake-up call for Pakistan's vulnerability to a changing climate pattern. The government as well as the public must wake up to the new reality and ensuing consequence of global inaction and our lack of preparedness.

Seventeen lives lost, mud houses swept away, and infrastructure crumbling - these are the immediate casualties, that the media has reported in a single day. But the true cost runs deeper. Roads severed, communication disrupted, and entire communities stran...