Pakistan has been facing climate carnage for the last few years. The situation is so alarming that it has prompted experts to warn that the country may face a climate apocalypse if immediate climate-resilient measures are not adopted. Various hydrometeorological hazards like flooding, intense heat waves and adverse weather currently originating from climate change have posed a serious threat to the food security, livelihood and even lives of the nation of over 230 million people.
The snag is that Pakistan is being forced to pay for others’ climate crimes. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change says although Pakistan contributes merely 0.9% to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. The country stands 31st on the table for the world’s ranking of emitting total greenhouse gases yet it is among the top 10 countries badly affected by climate change with an annual average from 2000 to 2019.
The intense climate events have exacerbated the vulnerability of Pakistanis, especially groups dependent on others like women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. The intensity and frequency of the occurrence of these events have touched an alarming high during the last decade.
Alone floods have caused massive life and property losses. For instance, the recent (2023) floods have caused mass evacuations, financial losses worth billions and deaths of dozens of citizens. While talking to Aljazeera English on recent floods (2023) a few days back, the country’s top meteorologist Muhammad Aslam said that a 35-year high water level was recorded in the river Sutlaj.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported the evacuation of more than 378,000 people and over 20,000 animals to secure locations. A United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report says that since the onset of the current (2023) monsoon, 394,314 individuals have been displaced in flood-affected areas, while 16 persons died, 101 injured, and 8,061 livestock perished. About 159,655 acres of agricultural land in Punjab and Chitral came under water.
According to the US Storm Watch (USW), because of an unprecedented heatwave, Pakistan was hotter than half of the world with Dadu experiencing 47 degrees Celsius on April 26, 2022. A study conducted earlier in 2022 by the World Weather Attribution group found that the heatwave that hit Pakistan in March and April was made 30 times more likely by climate change.
After poles the only country on the globe, which boasts over 7000 glaciers, is Pakistan. A UNDP report titled ‘Melting Glaciers, Growing Lakes and the Threat of Outburst Floods’ warns that due to rising temperatures, glaciers in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions are melting rapidly, creating more than 3,000 glacial lakes. Of these lakes, at least 33 are considered at risk of bursting and this phenomenon has put some 7.1 million people living downstream at the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF).
The abovementioned climate events are big evidence that Pakistan faces a serious climatic threat. The country’s geographical and climatic diversity poses a complex array of disaster risks, including floods, earthquakes, droughts, and landslides.
The intensity and rising number of natural disasters motivated the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to hold the first-ever Pakistan Expo on Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR-23) in June. However, despite having all these laws, plans and disaster management bodies at national, provincial and district levels, the on-ground situation depicts a grim picture. Different parts of the country are hit by varying kinds of natural disasters and thousands of affected still await support. In most cases, the action taken by the concerned authorities appears to be reactive instead of proactive.
In my opinion, the prevailing climate conditions require a robust DRR strategy containing pre-emptive measures and components like early warning systems, community engagement, contingency plans, emergency drills, resource inventory, a mechanism for coordination among different departments, damage need assessment and media management during emergencies.
Lack of resources, however, seriously hampers the execution of DRR initiatives. A disaster risk finance strategy with both national and international donors onboard is compulsory for Pakistan to address the significant financial and fiscal costs arising from disasters and climate change.
Access to disaster-related data should be made easy for all public and private actors involved in DRR activities. Similarly, the country needs a decentralised DRR policy which ensures the conduction of activities like risk assessments and capacity building on DRR down to sectoral planners, local planning authorities and town planners’ level. The community involvement in disaster management is the need of the hour. A comprehensive strategy for building community resilience through public awareness campaigns, training, and capacity-building initiatives will be key to success. Well-informed, connected and trained-to-act communities in areas under potential threat of climate-induced events can help mitigate the scale of the disaster. Keeping in view massive urbanisation, Pakistan requires rapid risk reduction initiatives conducted in the urban context.
The climate challenge is a cross-sectoral crisis that calls for a robust multi-pronged DRR approach. Let’s join forces and act swiftly to protect our coming generations from a climate apocalypse.