Managing disasters

The National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) had warned of urban flooding in some low-lying areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from August 18 to 19. The NDMA’s National Emergencies Operation Centre (NEOC) anticipated that more monsoon rains were expected to hit different parts of the country from August 18 (evening/night) to August 19 with occasional gaps. In its report released on Sunday, the NDMA said that at least 195 people have been killed and 362 wounded in separate rain-related incidents as torrential downpours continued battering different parts of the country from July 1 to August 17. The disaster management authority elaborated on the devastation caused by continued wet spells, which resulted in a great loss of lives, properties, crops and livestock since the beginning of the monsoon season. While weather-related disasters are common during the monsoon season from June to September, experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity. It is in this context that President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday urged citizens to actively participate in a national tree plantation campaign. He said that only five per cent of Pakistan’s total land area is covered by forests.

Due to climate change, the catastrophic floods back in 2022 plunged a third of the country underwater, killing over 1,700 people, displacing 33 million and destroying thousands of homes. Pakistan contributes less than one percent to global greenhouse gases yet is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. There is no denying that the climate change crisis is real. Record-breaking rains, heatwaves, flooding and other climate change-induced natural disasters need to be dealt with on a war-footing. The 2022 floods were not just about the financial loss to the economy; millions of homes were destroyed, thousands of schools were damaged, thousands of kilometres of roads network wiped out while hundreds of health units were destroyed. According to the UN, these floods pushed about nine million Pakistanis into poverty. People did not just lose their loved ones and their homes, but also all their livelihoods with no hope of getting it back without help from the state and the international community. The floods led to increased poverty for those whose livestock and crops were wiped out as well as a health emergency; and the damage to the infrastructure will take years to rebuild. The damage to schools basically meant that education of the younger generation was affected beyond imagination.

After the 2022 floods, we should have been more prepared for urban flooding but it seems that we may not be properly equipped because every time we hear the same old story that cities have come to a standstill. It is important that all governments – whether federal or provincial – invest in disaster management authorities because climate change-induced natural disasters are not going anywhere anytime soon; in fact, by all signs we may be facing more devastating heatwaves and rain disasters in the years ahead. The outbreak of diseases in flood-affected areas is quite common but one of the biggest challenges due to such flooding is food insecurity. Entire crops were washed away in 2022. Due to extreme heatwaves and flooding, crops get affected. The government will need to invest in rehabilitating the agriculture sector with new techniques or technology that can overcome this issue. Pakistan also needs to invest in green energy and take measures to deal with the danger of climate change.