LAHORE: Seventy-five artists have shown their work at “The Rivers Remember”, an exhibition in Lahore held to raise awareness about flood relief. The US Consul General in Lahore, Stetson Sanders, attended and said his country would keep standing with Pakistanis hit by floods.
The exhibition looked at the link between Pakistan’s rivers and the people who live beside them and depend on them. It also dealt with the damage floods do to those same communities, year after year.
In a statement, the US Consulate General said the United States had supported Pakistan through the major floods of 2010, 2022 and 2025. It said that help had included food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and support for recovery.
The consulate’s statement gave no figures, but earlier records do. After the 2010 floods, the US government said it was providing about $383 million for relief and recovery. US aircraft moved more than 26,000 people to safety.
In 2022, when a third of the country was under water, US humanitarian aid had reached $83.5 million by October, according to a report for the US Congress. American military aircraft flew in supplies that year too.
Last year the help came more directly through the military. On September 6, 2025, US military aircraft landed at Nur Khan Air Base with relief supplies, at the request of Pakistan’s armed forces. Six flights were promised. The US chargé d’affaires, Natalie Baker, handed the first load to the Pakistan Army.
One change is worth noting. The 2022 response was led by USAID, the American aid agency. That agency was closed down in 2025, and US assistance is now handled by the State Department. The consulate’s statement does not say what form future flood help will take.
For Lahore, the name of the exhibition is not just a figure of speech. In August 2025 the Ravi rose into the city for the first time in nearly four decades. Homes built on its floodplain were swept away. Punjab’s death toll that season had passed 230 by early September.
This year’s monsoon left its mark too. Punjab went through nine monsoon spells, and the last of them ran into mid-September. Two tehsils of Sheikhupura were declared disaster-hit, and the province approved new protection works on the Chenab.
The consulate’s statement leaves out several basic details. It does not say where the exhibition was held, who organised it, or on which dates. It calls the event “art for flood relief awareness” but does not say whether the works were sold, how much was raised, or which organisation will receive the money.
Those answers matter. Artists in Lahore have raised money for flood victims before, and people who gave or bought work will want to know where it went.
Ties between Punjab and the United States have been active this year. In August the chief minister met the US chargé d’affaires to discuss cooperation. Flood preparation is one area where that cooperation could show practical results before the next monsoon.
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