Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in Antalya for COP31 this week where Pakistan is demanding “predictable, adequate and accessible” climate finance. Sindh's housing initiative for flood victims has reached 1 million completed homes and 2.1 million are the total targets. Both efforts matter. But both define recovery in terms of what can be counted: money raised and homes restored. The work required to sustain a family once the water has receded is not so immediately apparent.
Around 33 million people were impacted by the floods in 2022. The government led Post-Disaster Needs Assessment estimated direct damage at US$14.9 billion and economic losses at US$15.2 billion. Over 2 million houses were damaged in the country, of which more than 1.7 million were in Sindh. The assessment identified 1087 damaged health facilities in Sindh. UNFPA estimated that almost 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas needed maternal health services.
These are figures that indicate the magnitude of the catastrophe. They don't provide us detail on how families coped during the damage of clinics, schools, water systems and homes. Who tended to the sick, the aged and the children? Who discovered fresh water, cooked food and assisted family members with illness?
If they were unable to go to a clinic, family members would look after the sick. Schools were closed and children required supervision at home. Household members were forced to go further to fetch water when there was a shortage. Women and girls were under especially high pressure, as they bear the bulk of unpaid domestic and care work.
This is not merely an assumption. Women have been identified as the most vulnerable to water and sanitation issues as they bear the burden of water and sanitation management within households in the 2022 Post Disaster Needs Assessment of Pakistan. The floods could make worse women's unpaid work, and it could impact on girls' school attendance due to increased care responsibilities, it said. However, it failed to measure the extra hours that women had spent on care taking, fetching water or supporting relatives. The burden was recognized, but the time cost of the burden was not measured.
There is a greater measurement gap in Pakistan. The national Time Use Survey was conducted in the country at UN 2007. It is the most recent nationwide survey that measures the time that women and men spend on their activities, including their unpaid ones, that was found in the official available records. Unfortunately, two decades later there is no current baseline of data to understand who performs unpaid work, how much time it requires, and how crises, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, impact that.
My undergraduate research is no national estimate but instead a tiny, local illustration. I interviewed 50 women in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, away from the flood affected zones. 40 stated they felt household duties were a source of exhaustion or stress, and 41 felt a homemaker should be recognised as a worker. The answers were from normal circumstances and unharmed houses and services. They don't know what life was like for the women in a flood camp. They do demonstrate the need for attention to unpaid work prior to the next disaster.
This gap can be significant for relief planning. An evaluation that tallies ruined homes and lost crops can result in farm and house rebuilding. One that also asks who cares for whom can help recognize other needs that are also critical: safe water near shelters, mobile health teams, supervised space for children, accessible sanitation and support for a person caring for an older family member or for a person with a disability. These are not things that can be added on. They support households to rebuild and enable carers to receive healthcare and income and education for themselves.
The housing programme in Sindh provides a good example of why the recovery should not be limited to the house structure. As of February 2026, over 100,000 women had secured secure land rights under the programme and 800,000 women were getting financial access. Ownership and control over resources can improve women's security – it matters. However, a title deed does not necessarily make a woman's daily.load less. She can have the house rebuilt and still get water, tend to a sick child and feed the family.
There are three steps Pakistan needs to take before the next monsoon.
First, measure. A fresh time-use survey should be done at the national level by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Disaster needs assessments should seek to determine who cares for the disaster, what they do and how much time do those tasks take?
Second, organize relief in the area of care. Childcare, safe water and sanitation services and health education outreach should be regarded as a critical service by federal and provincial disaster management authorities and they should involve women in the design of shelters and camps.
Thirdly, bring the issue to the climate negotiations. Pakistan is correct that climate losses are not limited to the damage to infrastructure. A cost of unpaid care is one that is rarely included in a recovery ledger. Services that help to minimize and redistribute women's time should be supported through climate finance; disaster assessments should document the impact of disasters on women's time.
A million houses, that's an accomplishment. Reconstruction shouldn't stop with giving them the keys and title deeds. It must also restore access to health care, education, clean water and essential support services. Ultimately, the success of recovery needs to be determined, not simply by the fact that the house is rebuilt, but also whether the women who live in the house are able to have more time, choices and opportunities to rebuild their lives.
