Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan has made it to the list of the most affected countries worldwide due to climate change; it seems policymakers are not in a hurry to chalk out a comprehensive policy to ameliorate the sufferings of millions, which is increasing with each passing day.

Official sources told Daily Times that people had no idea about the climate change and its impacts. They consider natural disasters as divine punishment.

Pakistan has been one of the major victims of natural calamities in the world. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey, more than 3,000 people were killed and $16 billion loss incurred due to floods of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Bridges were swept away, infrastructure was damaged and people were displaced from their homes and villages. Communication channels were lost in many areas. In 2014, floods in Punjab and AJK destroyed thousands of developmental projects costing the government billions of rupees.

According to the research, millions of people in Pakistan suffer from heavy floods every year… with victims mainly from rural areas whose basic source of income is agriculture. The capricious rain patterns and freakish weather are also harming agriculture. Farmers are mostly ambivalent about which crop to grow in order to avoid high losses. Earthquakes have become a norm in most parts of the country. More than 1,200 people lost their lives in Karachi heatwave last year. Flash floods in Chitral and drought in Thar cost many more lives. With each passing year glaciers are shrinking at a faster rate, making the flow of rivers more unpredictable downstream. Sources said that instead of turning to renewable energy resources like sunlight, wind, geo-thermal, the government has expedited work on coal power projects and nuclear power plants.

The Thar power plant, Arifwala power station, Jhang (RLNG based) power project, Balloki power plant and Kanupp (I, II, III) are some of the examples.

Pakistan has the potential to generate 90,000MW of electricity from wind energy and sunlight and more than 60,000MW from hydro energy. Being exposed to climate change related calamities the government should have turned its focus to such environment-friendly energy sources to meet ever-growing demand. But, unfortunately, that isn’t happening, added sources.

The World Met Office (WMO) has disclosed in its recent report that the world has witnessed the hottest ever years during the last five years and the current year is nearing to set a new record in terms of hottest weather. This report has triggered grave concern among the circles related to environmental protection.

The major cause behind this intensity is human activities. The way the use of fossil fuel has been increased enormously, experts have expressed apprehensions that possibility of heatwave spells may increase manifold in the coming years.

According to a report, 258,000 casualties caused due to drought in East Africa during 2011 were outcome of hot climate. According to official statistics, 4,100 deaths were caused due to heatwave in India and Pakistan during 2015.