Harsh winter stares at flood-hit Buner, Swat

As autumn fades into a harsh northern winter, quiet desperation lingers across the flood-hit valleys of Buner and Swat, where thousands of families still await government assistance nearly two months after catastrophic flash floods upended their lives.

Beneath flapping plastic sheets and makeshift shelters, survivors brace for plunging temperatures that threaten to deepen their misery.

The devastating floods of August 15 swept through northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), submerging homes, destroying crops. and leaving behind a landscape of loss and despair, with many urgent questions still unanswered.

In the town of Pir Baba, 62-year-old Riaz Shah stands barefoot on the muddy remnants of what used to be his three-marla home. The daily wage labourer now sleeps under a donated tarp with five young grandchildren, struggling through freezing nights.

“I used to have a home in Pir Baba,” he says, pointing to a cracked cement slab. “Now, I have a plastic sheet, and the children remained upset through the night because of the cold.”

The floods reduced his modest home, built with decades of labour, to rubble within minutes. Everything his family owns now fits beneath a sagging sheet.