Sherry Rehman, the country’s top climate official, has warned Pakistan is “at ground zero” of “flash floods, multiple glacial eruptions, heatwaves and now the monster monsoon of the decade”. Since the monsoon season began earlier than usual in June, a third of the country has disappeared under water, with entire villages washed away, crops destroyed and people desperately seeking higher ground. Meanwhile, Pakistani officials are calling on the UN and the international community for help. Here Sky News looks at why Pakistan is at the forefront of the climate crisis – and whether it can withstand the increasingly extreme weather ahead. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:58 Pakistan minister on “apocalyptic” floods More glaciers than anywhere except the Arctic and Antarctica Pakistan is home to about 221 million people. The majority of the population lives along the Indus River, which flows from the Himalayas through most of the country to the Arabian Sea at Karachi. During the monsoon season in July and August, the Indus is prone to flooding – something that has been accelerated by climate change. In the northern Himalayan regions, Pakistan is home to more glaciers than anywhere else in the world outside the Arctic and Antarctic – about 7,000 in total. Rising global temperatures, which reached nearly 50 degrees Celsius in the town of Nawabshah earlier this year, are causing these glaciers to melt and form glacial lakes. About 3,000 new lakes have formed, with officials warning that 33 of them are currently at risk of exploding. Many already have so far this year. When the Shisper glacier burst in May, it released millions of cubic meters of water, triggering landslides and creating a lake that destroyed a bridge, two power stations and hundreds of homes in the Hunza Valley. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:41 Flood rescue in a rushing river “Monster Monsoon” While the Indus is flowing fuller and faster than usual from the north of the country, the southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan are experiencing unprecedented levels of rainfall. Sindh in the southeast had 784% of normal rainfall levels this year, while Balochistan in the southwest had 522%. The mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the north has also been hit hard by the same “monster monsoon”, with none of Pakistan’s four provinces spared. Image: Flooding in Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Photo: AP Usually the active rainy season only lasts for a month and a half in July and August, but this year it started early and shows no signs of slowing down. Climate Minister Sherry Rehman recently tweeted: “Pakistan has never seen an uninterrupted monsoon cycle like this. “Eight weeks of unstoppable torrents have left huge swaths of the country under water. This is not a normal season. This is a deluge from all sides, affecting 33 million people, the size of a small country.” Image: A boy grabs a lifeline in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Image: An elderly man helps a child in the water in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Can Pakistan cope on the frontline of climate change? Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country in the world to extreme weather events, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by NGO Germanwatch. This summer’s floods affected 15% of the total population, leaving roads, bridges and basic infrastructure underwater, communities cut off and people without food or resources. Image: A damaged road in Peshawar The government declared a state of emergency on August 25, but with land thin, airlifting supplies to the displaced is proving difficult for the military and aid agencies. The UN has allocated £2.6m for its agencies and their partners to help deal with the floods, with the UK adding £1.5m in emergency support, along with pledges from the US and the UAE. Image: A destroyed mud hut in Jaffarabad, Balochistan Rebuilding can take years But Pakistan’s army chief, General Javed Bajwa, warned on Sunday that it could take years for the country to recover. And many Pakistanis and climate change activists have accused the government of ignoring the urgency of the crisis and not building enough preventive infrastructure. Political instability and the recent ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan, some argue, has also pushed climate change further up the agenda. Despite being deadly, Pakistan’s newly formed glacial lakes have become tourist attractions, with authorities criticized for allowing developers to build hotels near – and on the banks of swollen rivers – flood-prone areas. Image: A lake formed in Hunza, Attabad, northern Pakistan. Photo: AP The United Nations Development Program has also singled out Pakistan for failing to provide up-to-date information on glacial changes, making it difficult to predict potential disasters. And with more rain expected in September, Climate Change Minister Ms Rehman told Sky News: “There is absolutely no capacity to absorb any more water.” In the longer term, a 2019 study by the Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development predicts that even meeting the 1.5C limit on global warming by 2050 would mean a third of Pakistan’s glaciers would melt. Ms Rehman said the current crisis would “cause a number of long- and medium-term effects” and mean a huge reconstruction effort. Image: Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr Asif Khan Khattak, an environmental scientist at the University of Peshawar, added: “We will see more extreme weather events. “It’s very important that we consider climate change planning in our regulations, in our policies. “If we don’t have that, we’re going to have the same problems in the future.” Read more: Photos reveal devastating effects of Pakistan floods Queen and PM send messages to Pakistan Some external investments have already been made. In the mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the UN Green Climate Fund has funded better early warning systems, 50 weather stations in 24 valleys, slope stabilization and better irrigation systems. It claims this will benefit up to 700,000 people directly and 29 million indirectly.