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In recent months across Asia severe flooding triggered by unusually intense rainfall has emerged as a recurring crisis. From South and Southeast Asia to Central and East Asia, communities have been grappling with flash floods, landslides and glacial lake outbursts as warming temperatures and shifting monsoon dynamics fuel increasingly erratic weather.
South Asia
In northern Pakistan, exceptionally heavy pre‑monsoon rains in June and July caused devastating flash floods across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir. Over 200 people died, with hundreds injured and many missing, while more than 1,500 were rescued amidst public anger over inadequate early warnings and encroachment on riverbeds. The Swat Valley was particularly hard hit as tourist gatherings were swept away local media reported.
To the east in remote regions of northern India meanwhile, notably in Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim, unprecedented heavy monsoon rainfall in early June stranded tourists, caused widespread landslides and claimed at least 34 lives in under a week. Thousands of homes were flooded, key roads were cut off, and livelihoods disrupted across thousands of square kilometres.
China and East Asia
Beijing too, just this week has suffered some of the worst rainfall ever recorded: 195 mm fell within 13 hours local and international media reports - amounting to nearly an entire season’s worth of rain in less than a day. At least 30 people have died in recent days and over 80,000 have been evacuated while major infrastructure including transportation networks, fibre‑opticn etworks, rural roads have been heavily damaged. Officials in China have linked the deluge to warm, humid air carried northwards by a typhoon system from the Philippines which is also currently affecting weather patterns over neighbouring Taiwan. The island nation has issued warnings via local language media warning of heavy rain until the end of August.
In northeast Asia, South Korea too faced catastrophic floods from July 16 onwards. Around 20 are thought to have died, 11 remain missing and more than 13,000 were evacuated at the height of floods affecting the country. Seoul was particularly hard hit. Landslides struck numerous villages on the peninsula with campsites and agricultural areas inundated. As a result, the Korean government declared the disaster a “once‑in‑a‑century event” after immense rainfall impacted regions such as Gwangju and Seosan, cutting electricity to over 41,000 households.
Back in southern China, provinces including Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi, Guangdong and Guizhou were placed under flood warnings from as early as late May. Storms delivering over 150 mm in certain districts prompted military rescue responses, as landslides and flash floods affected scores of lives and communities Reuters reported at the time.
Southeast Asia and the Himalayas
Further south, Indonesia saw widespread flooding and landslides earlier in 2025. In Central Java alone – the world’s most populous island - at least 17 people died in April as storms inundated communities; similar devastation was seen in Bali, North Sumatra and Sulawesi between January to April.
In Nepal, a glacial lake flooded surrounding areas in mid‑May destroyed waterways and displaced people in Humla district, albeit without any rainfall recorded, emphasising too the role of glacial instability. A second event on July 8 over the Bhotekoshi River destroyed a cross-border bridge, killed at least eight people and left dozens more missing.
Meanwhile, Malaysia and broader Southeast Asia have witnessed shifting rainfall patterns. A rise in sea-surface temperatures (1.29 °C above 20th‑century average) combined with La Niña effects led to torrential, nearly daily heavy rain that spilled far outside the typical year‑end monsoon window of November–March. In early 2025, heavy precipitation in Sabah, Sarawak and Johor led to flooding and landslides that surpassed past patterns in both scale and timing.
Climatic trends
As it is now believed that Asia is warming at nearly twice the global average, accelerating glacier melt and increasing atmospheric moisture capacity, both drought and flood extremes have grown more common. Heatwaves, marine heatwaves and record sea surface temperatures are impacting the water cycle across the continent, with glacial retreat elevating the risk of glacial-lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the Himalayas and Tian Shan ranges.
Trends to thie end in South Asia show a threefold rise in extreme rain events over central India since 1950. Monsoon onset and withdrawal has become less predictable, leading to intense rainfall bursts that overwhelm drainage infrastructure rather than the steady seasonal rains of the past.
Continued vulnerabilities
Across the impacted countries too, vulnerability has compounded disaster severity. In Pakistan, unregulated development along riverbanks and lack of early warning systems exacerbated losses in the Swat Valley. In India’s Himalayan regions, the absence of risk-aware urban planning and rapidly melting glaciers created multiple overlapping hazards The Times of India reported.
Yet insurance coverage in many areas of Asia remains scant: roughly 80–95 % of flood losses in South and Southeast Asia are uninsured. Governments and communities have limited resources for rapid response or rebuilding. Parametric insurance has been proposed as a faster payout mechanism based on rainfall thresholds, offering a potential bridge to reduce the financial protection gap, but is far from the perfect safety net.
Furthermore, glacial retreat in the Himalayas threatens water security for a full 2bn people dependent on major river systems, raising the possibility of cascading risks from GLOFs, drought and flood cycles.
Adaptation and policy paths
Because of this, adaptation efforts are urgent. The Mekong River Commission has already deployed AI-based forecasting tools in several Southeast Asian countries, with real‑time community alert apps and flash‑flood guidance to help populations adapt proactively. Reports indicate that Thailand and the Philippines are introducing AI‑powered rainfall predictions to deliver warnings with lead times of up to three hours.
Back in the Indian Himalayas The Times of India reports that authorities have convened expert investigative teams from NDMA, IITs and civil‑engineering bodies to examine recent cloudbursts and landslides, with hope of recommending structural and institutional reforms within weeks.
Supporting all of this, financially, the World Bank calls for expanded climate resilience investments - including strengthening urban infrastructure and integrating disaster risk financing - since over 60 % of households and firms in South Asia have already experienced extreme weather events in recent years the Economic Times says.
There is no sign of let up, however. Resilience must now be built on a broad front: investments in forecasting and early warning including AI tools, insurance innovations like parametric schemes, enforcement of river‑bed protections, improved urban planning, and cross‑border cooperation around shared river basins. The window remains open to translate scientific insights into meaningful policy, lest tragedy become routine and people reading about floods in other areas today become victims themselves.
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