Published on, Sept. 28 -- September 28, 2025 12:00 AM

The Sutlej has been battering Multan, Bahawalpur and Lodhran for over a month, yet the water shows little sign of receding. In some localities, entire hamlets remain marooned under eight feet of stagnant water. Relief camps are overcrowded, disease is spreading, and schools that might have doubled as shelters lie in ruins. These pages have repeatedly documented families living on rooftops, waiting for rations that arrive sporadically at best.

The human toll has rightly drawn headlines, but the deeper story is the collapse of resilience in the breadbasket. Fields have been wiped clean, sugarcane has rotted where it stood, and wheat prices are rising in anticipation of shortages. More ...