The Big Heat

Pakistan is in the grip of a major climatic change linked to global warming. It cannot be stopped and although the national contribution to the global carbon footprint is almost negligible, Pakistan is suffering and will continue to suffer quite disproportionately. This is not idle speculation or the work of some conspiracy theorist, climate change is real and year-on-year Pakistan is going to feel the heat — and in some cases the wet as cyclic flooding is also a certainty. The effects have the potential to be catastrophic for Pakistan as well as large parts of India what is currently in-process represents an existential threat. Parts of both countries may become uninhabitable with implications for population movement that are difficult to anticipate or plan for.

For much of the last week Karachi and surrounding areas have been suffering from extreme heat and there are extreme consequences. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has predicted that current conditions may prevail until the end of this week. Although caution must be exercised in terms of the numbers that have died as a result of the heat, it is clear from a range of sources that 60 and possibly more have died as a direct result of it or from heat-related conditions.

In 2015, there was a similar event that caused thousands of deaths, and the city was deficient in terms of disaster planning and management. The number of corpses exceeded storage capacity. The crisis produced a comprehensive heatwave management plan but we are yet to see or experience the effects of its widespread implementation. In global terms city heatwaves are not considered as mass-casualty events, and largely preventable. The plan was accepted by the Sindh government but once again with elections looming disaster management is unlikely to be high on any party’s political agenda. The office of the commissioner is the custodian of the master plan and we look forward to hearing in detail about its implementation now and in the future. This is going to happen again. Every year. And will get worse. Thousands need not die, but whether anybody cares enough to prevent those deaths is a question hanging in the heat haze.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2018.

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