One hundred million people live around the Indus River in Pakistan and rely on it for drinking water and for irrigation. Each year the monsoon rains come to the east coast of the Indian subcontinent in July, August and September. Winds bring the rain north from the Arabian Sea up the Indus Valley, watering the fields in time for the crops to be planted.
It normally rains for 3 months, but in August 2010 half of the normal amount of monsoon rain fell in just 1 week. This was almost ten times more than usual, and the rivers could not cope. In the Swat valley in the north of the country the rivers overflowed their banks, bursting through the valley and causing utter devastation. All 20 bridges in the valley were destroyed and villages were swept away.
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