Pakistan is caught in the vortex of climatic and environmental changes

    From K

Karachi to Peshawar, all areas of Pakistan including Gilgit-Baltistan. There is not a single city in Pakistan where the rains have not created problems for the people. From the news on newspapers and television channels related to the rains in the last few days and from the video clips that have gone viral on social media, one thing has definitely come out, the administration has become a fantasy of helplessness regarding drainage everywhere. All this situation is being presented as the failures of the governments in the context of the ongoing political chaos in the country which may be true to some extent but not ultimately. And the series of predictions about the resulting catastrophes has continued since 1999 when for the first time the list of countries affected by climate change was released by the United Nations. The reason for the changes was attributed to the rising temperature in the world. The main cause of which was declared to be the rapidly increasing air pollution. Such production included all the developed countries whose industries were sending large amounts of smoke into the atmosphere day and night from various products for human needs. In 2010, Pakistan was ranked 5th in the list of countries affected by climate change, not because the factories in Pakistan were emitting more smoke, but because of the glaciers in the Himalayan mountains within Pakistan's borders. Glaciers whose melting speed was increasing with each passing year. Other countries with glaciers were also included in the list.

    In 2010, while sounding the alarm for the whole world, meteorologists informed that whether it is winter or summer, they will increase in intensity. As a result of these changes, drought will increase and stormy rains as well. There will be floods, the countries that depend on agriculture will be more affected. They will face water shortages due to the bursting of lakes hidden inside the glaciers, which will be devastating for the affected populations. The earth's temperature will increase gradually. Which will cause the most severe hibernation in the rainy season. This will affect agriculture, the production of commodities will decrease. Diseases in humans and livestock will increase. In order to prevent this, first, emphasis was placed on increasing water reserves in Pakistan to protect agriculture in times of drought and the need to increase forests on an emergency basis to control temperature, that are already alarmingly low in proportion to the area and further decreasing. In particular, the increase in forests in the mountainous areas was discussed to avoid landslides in the rainy season and the severity of snowfall in the winter.

    The amount of snow that fell on the mountains of Murree last winter is the result of this climatic change, about which international experts of meteorology and environment have been informing the whole world and Pakistan for a long time that every season comes with more intensity than expected. The blizzard in Murree was sudden and so unexpected that many people lost their lives along with their friends and family, despite being in a densely populated area, they continued to yearn for help. Political parties continued to blame each other by terming it as an administrative failure. A few months ago, the population had to face a similar situation due to drought and lack of water in Thar and Cholistan. Nor has it ever been seen before that people fell ill due to extreme heat and cold in the urban areas in the months of March and April. If you look at the damage caused by the recent rains across the country, then in Balochistan more than 60 People have lost their lives. Most of them were those people who were swept away in the sudden floods. 700 houses were destroyed and hundreds of sheep and goats were killed by the raging rains. The effects of rainwater damage in Karachi are still widespread. Apart from interior Sindh, there is no shortage of rain disasters in KPK and northern areas. Thus, more than 150 deaths due to rains alone have been reported across the country. Which is not much more than the destruction and deaths during the rainy season in 2020. Apart from the loss of life, if the loss of property is estimated, then it will be realized that the country that is struggling to get loans from the international financial institutions to meet its administrative needs, does it have such a large scale of roads and bridges and other unreported damages every year can afford losses?

    Then why our political elites do not understand that the responsibility of protecting against climate and environmental changes is not on any individual political party but on every citizen equally. If the party in power is of the opinion that it alone has the ability to remedy it, then this is also a delusion because success in this is not possible without the practical involvement of all schools of thought. And then a country where instead of national projects, more emphasis is placed on such unproductive projects that the ruling party can complete before the end of its government period and win future elections based on them.

 And you must understand to make sure. Due to these reasons, the realization could never be awakened in our houses of power that the underground water level in Pakistan is going down rapidly. It is not possible to meet the food requirements for population growth without abundant water. Every year, due to the lack of dams or large water reservoirs, the sea becomes dry because of the rainwater, but before it reaches the sea, the settlements are destroyed. It has been 75 years since the establishment of Pakistan. After Mangala and Tarbela, we got stuck in playing politics on Kala Bagh, the third dam.

On the contrary, India, which became independent a day after the establishment of Pakistan, has so far constructed 4710 small and large dams while 390 are under construction. We in Pakistan will not give up the method of shining politics on the Kalabagh Dam project in addition to planning to build new dams for long-term water storage in Pakistan, the cities of Pakistan will continue to be devastated by rains. And the effects of climate change will continue to affect our economies and lives.

Urdu Copy

Written by Khalid Baig,

Published in Daily Nawa-i-Waqt,

Date: 18 July 2022.