Health risks of flooding in Pakistan

This presentation challenges the notion of "natural disasters" by foregrounding the social and political roots of catastrophes such as floods. Using Pakistan as a case study, it argues that disasters emerge not solely from natural hazards, but from compounded human vulnerability shaped by structural inequalities, policy neglect, and environmental mismanagement. While climate change intensifies monsoon patterns and flooding, it is itself a product of human action. Drawing on Virchow's principle that epidemics are social in origin, I extend this view to environmental disasters, highlighting how marginalisation, deforestation, rapid urbanisation, and failures in governance have heightened Pakistan's exposure. Tracing major floods from 1950 to the unprecedented 2022 event, I question the persistent lack of institutional learning and accountability. Ultimately, I call for reframing disaster discourse to hold power structures to account and to centre justice in climate and disaster responses.