High alert

The National Disaster Management Authority has called Cyclone Biparjoy a moment of ‘high alert’ for coastal areas as the cyclone is said to be gaining strength and has now turned into an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS), likely to affect Sindh’s coastal areas on June 13 (Tuesday). Climate Minister Sherry Rehman has called Cyclone Biparjoy “unpredictable yet categorized as high intensity”. In a Twitter message, the minister has said that while “panic is counterproductive” “caution and planning are better than being caught unawares”. One cannot agree more with her. The Met Department has said that different cities of Sindh including Karachi will see heavy rain from the evening or night of June 13 (Tuesday) to June 16 (Friday). The most vulnerable communities – fishing communities living along the coastal areas – need to be informed through proper government-run campaigns that this is a potentially serious situation. The NDMA has asked the authorities to run awareness campaigns in local languages to inform residents of the coastal areas that they should keep away from the shorelines – particularly fishermen trying to make it to the open sea.

Only last year Sindh and Balochistan saw some of the worst impacts of climate change, which also laid bare just how woefully unprepared we are for such cataclysmic events. Karachi’s coastal location means it will suffer the ravages of climate change but, instead of taking measures to counteract the effects of global warming, the city has over the years witnessed unplanned and thoughtless ‘development’ – with the authorities carrying out reclamation and dredging along the coast without any regard to the disaster they are inviting. The immediate impact of reclamation – and the selling of the coastline for massive housing and commercial projects – is in the congested water supply and the adverse impact it has had on the drainage system. Any natural disasters that hit in the form of cyclones will be more destructive since the mangrove forests that provided some protection have been felled. In this, the most marginalized will suffer the most as coastal villages get inundated because of the soil erosion caused by dredging. Add a cyclone to this and we have a disastrous situation.

In the long term, climate change will make most of these coastal areas uninhabitable and yet the city continues to develop in these areas and even reclaims more land. The time for drastic action is already here and will require the government to put environmental health before development projects. Few countries in the world are taking seriously their duty to the planet but that is no reason for us to be similarly blase. Within a generation or two our coastal areas, including cities like Karachi, could be uninhabitable yet we display no sense of urgency to stave off this impending calamity or make plans for dealing with it. For now, the city and provincial governments in Sindh need to be fully prepared for any potential damage caused not just by Cyclone Biparjoy but, if it moves away from our coastline, also for the strong winds and rainfall that are expected regardless.