Islamabad, Aug 19 : Torrential monsoon rainfall has unleashed devastation across Pakistan, claiming hundreds of lives across the nation due to flooding and landslides, according to local media reports.

At least 657 people were killed and nearly 1,000 others had been injured since late June in rain-triggered incidents.

On Monday, more than 400 casualties were reported in several regions, including Buner, Swat, Shangla, Bajaur, Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB), and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

As dozens of homes have been swept away, funeral prayers have filled muddy fields, and the valleys of Pakistan echo with grief, the tragedy once again exposed the nation's susceptibility to climate change and lack of institutional preparedness, Zafar Khan Safdar, a research scholar, writes in the country's leading newspaper, Pakistan Observer.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), where the highest casualties were recorded, the provincial government, reportedly in the last 15 years of governance, had done nothing beyond slogans and empty promises.

Reports suggest that the much-touted Billion Tree Tsunami project in Pakistan, which was considered a flagship environmental reform, has currently been exposed as a large-scale fraud with trees that were never planted, lands misappropriated, and billions siphoned off, while the hills of Swat and Dir remained barren.

Additionally, the Malam Jabba land scam in K-P further highlighted how natural resources were misused as opportunities for corruption.

Meanwhile, in the Swabi district of K-P, as many as 17 people lost their lives on Monday after torrential rains submerged houses, swept away people, and triggered landslides in several parts of the region, while two fatalities were reported in Nowshera district of the province.

According to Swabi Deputy Commissioner Nasrullah Khan, a cloudburst in Dalori village submerged 12 houses, while landslides struck in the hilly terrain of the district.

He added that the heavy downpour and landslides caused severe destruction in the Gadoon Amazai mountainous belt, where flash floods inundated multiple houses and swept away several residents.

The Pakistan Observer reported that rampant deforestation and unchecked tree cutting across K-P eroded the natural shield that forests once offered against landslides and floods.

It further mentioned that had the governance been serious about safeguarding forests, restoring watersheds, and maintaining infrastructure, countless lives could have been saved in the catastrophic deluge.

Instead, several people died not because of the wrath of the floods alone but from sheer negligence, mismanagement, and a system crippled by the absence of checks and balances.

/IANS