August 19, 2022

Pakistan’s floods desperately call for climate resilience policies

topic:	Climate action
located:	Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Within days, up to 600 people have lost their lives and thousands more have been displaced due to flash floods caused by irregular rain patterns in Pakistan. Nevertheless, there continues to be no focus on the pressing issues of environmental protection or climate change in the national agenda, which remains hijacked by populist politics of the authoritarian military establishment. 

The wish for the dedicated green parties in Pakistan to call for action on these issues remains a vain hope as the country cannot match the regional standards of lobbyists in other countries, such as India and Bangladesh, that can hold the powerful to account.

The major political parties in Pakistan convince voters with fake promises for job security, utilities and other loud claims that are hardly met when in power. The relatively smaller and regional ones are more inclined to run on platforms of identity and ideological politics; all in all, the pressing issue of the environment is ignored by everyone. The country’s powerful army, on the other hand, is equally guilty as it continues to engage in industrial and trade ventures that further harm the environment. 

In the national discourse, the country’s leaders have hardly bothered to enlighten the masses on the subjects of ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, nonviolence, sustainability and respect for diversity, all of which are the guiding principles of green politics.

The way politics is conducted now - mud throwing and character-driven drama - is only aimed at grabbing power instead of serving the people and has resulted in the accumulation of power and wealth in a handful of individuals and groups at the cost of growing disparity among the poor and marginalised.

Nearly 23,000 people have reportedly been displaced from their homes and some 107,000 livestock have perished due to the latest extreme weather events. The floods have particularly hit the country’s poor populations hardest in the neglected Balochistan province. Just weeks prior to the irregular rains, the country witnessed yet another spell of deadly heat waves.

Imagine this happening in any other civilised society. This is no less than a national emergency scenario and a call for concrete actions on war footings. Yet in Pakistan, the news of this devastation is treated as an ‘unpleasant’ incident that nobody wants to hear about. 

Climate change and its deadly impacts in Pakistan are real. Something must be done to raise awareness among the public, to hold the corrupt leadership accountable, forcing them to minimise the losses of the catastrophic events.

Photo by Misbahul Aulia

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