There is a need to wage a war against climate change to thwart its effects
ISLAMABAD: According to media reports, torrential rains and flash floods wreaked havoc in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan on April 3, killing at least 78 men, women and children and injuring 86 others. Landslides blocked main highways and road links in Hazara and Malakand divisions while rivers and streams, becoming strong torrents after heavy rainfall, devastated the infrastructure. According to the Met Office, Peshawar received 45 millimetres of rain in about 24 hours.
Pakistanis are not facing such tough conditions for the first time. The recent torrential rains and flash floods in K-P and other parts of the country are a regular phenomenon for the last several years.
According to reports by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank released in 2010, the floods that ravaged Pakistan in the summer caused an estimated $9.7 billion in damage to homes, roads, farms and other parts of the South Asian country. According to Pakistani authorities, more than 20 million people were displaced in the 2010 rains and flood. Furthermore, the 2012 floods alone cost the government six billion dollars, which clearly underscores that natural calamities are hampering the future development of Pakistan. People then suffered from various medical maladies, including at least 700,000 cases of acute diarrhoea, 800,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, nearly a million cases of skin disease and almost 183,000 suspected malaria cases, as reported by the United Nations.
The country faced yet another flood in 2013 causing more tragedy to the nation. According to an Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report, heavy monsoon rains in August 2013 triggered flash floods and caused widespread losses and damage across Pakistan. Nearly 1.5 million people, almost 80,000 houses, and 1.5 million acres of crops were affected. In the first week of September 2014, heavy monsoon rains and floods in Pakistan killed 367 people and affected more than two-and-a-half million people. Over one million acres of cropland and 250,000 farmers were affected. According to another OCHA report, monsoon floods in 2015 affected approximately 1.6 million people in more than 4,000 villages.
We recently noticed the government trying to take a somewhat active role against the challenges of climate change, which has brought large-scale damage to our country through rains and floods. However, the government is not serious in combating the challenge of climate change. It has yet to take concrete steps to mitigate the suffering of the vulnerable people. The non-seriousness is evident from the fact that budget allocations for the Climate Change Division have been decreased to Rs58.8 million from Rs135 million in 2012-2013, resulting in a 50 per cent reduction — this budget cut also portrays a negative image to international donors.
The current budget is not enough to combat the impact of climate change as the damage due to these changing weather patterns has resulted in billions of dollars’ worth of losses. Climate change is a permanent threat to our country and the world. There is a need to wage a war against climate change to thwart its effects. Else, it will have hazardous effects on the country’s economy and, above all, on people’s lives.
Khazir Klasra
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2016.
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