Daily Times

The most defining phenomenon of our era remains climate change. No one knows for sure where we are headed, whether the glaciers will deplete or we will soon hit a new ice age, whether the rise in temperatures will be a permanent feature (empirical evidence from the last few years supports the assertion) or the tide will turn towards an era of more intense weather all around with springs and autumns squeezing and diminishing. Few things, however, are confirmed. One, our climate is changing in defining and tangibly impactful ways. Two, the temperatures are rising, the glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising across the globe. Three, weather patterns across the globe are changing and longer spells of dry heat followed by flash rains leading to flash flooding are becoming the norm in most parts of the world. Four, carbon emissions have, at least, some impact on rising temperatures.
Incidentally, this climate change is threatening many a human habitat on seashores and in drought-hit areas. Pakistan and the region around it are among the most intensely hit by this climate change. The challenges of climate change for Pakistan are multifold. One, the dry heat spells in June are becoming more intense. Then the rainfalls in monsoon have been higher and more intense, leading to flash flooding every year. The glaciers are melting because of rising temperatures, leading to enhanced flooding. Lastly, the rising sea levels are threatening the agricultural land in Sindh delta and with time the country will need more fresh water flowing downstream Kotri to prevent the sea from claiming the land. Add to this the depleted water resources of the country, particularly the lowering of the ground water table in central Punjab because of the population explosion. Amid all these challenges, the country needs a comprehensive climate change policy, which seems non-existent with the present government.
First and foremost is the need for a comprehensive health and safety plan for extreme weather conditions (in both summers and winters). Here, provincial governments can take the lead and can do a lot on their own. Second is the issue of evolving a comprehensive water policy. We need to find ways to route floodwaters through channels that limit the damage caused in areas across the river basins. This will require focusing indigenously and centering planning on ‘all that can go wrong will go wrong’. More importantly, we need to have water storage to ensure a minimum year round fresh water discharge into the sea to prevent the sea from claiming the mangrove forests and agricultural land across the Sindh delta.
It may not be our place to prevent or reverse the melting of the glaciers but we need to carry out an extensive impact analysis of melting glaciers on affected communities and devise plans to ensure sustainable lives amid the eventualities. Above all, we need to carry out extensive forestation drives across the country for forestation is a proven tool against floods and droughts.
And then we need to solve our population density mess. The massive population explosion in central Punjab has drained ground water resources, put immense pressure on surface water resources and has created the massive challenge of energy production to cater to the needs of the region. There has to be a mechanism to spread this population to other low-density areas and that requires comprehensive plans to encourage economic development in other areas through the creation of infrastructure in those areas and imposing city planning guidelines aimed at restricting the expansion of existing settlements of Central Punjab.
The biggest threat in this all is that the cabal that rules us and controls discourse in this nation is either oblivious to these realities or wants to use the recurring catastrophes to further vested interests. For instance, every time there is flooding, we start hearing chants about Kalabagh Dam without anyone telling us what Kalabagh can do when the worst affected areas by flash floods are all upstream Kalabagh.
Then this whole water storage issue focuses on consuming more and more water leaving even lesser water to flow into the Arabian Sea. There cannot be a bigger disregard for the environmental challenge of rising sea tide eating into lands on the shores than this. And then there is the issue of diverting development outside central Punjab. The cabal that rules this country is well entrenched in central Punjab. Moving economic activity out of the region would mean ceding some control to other local power centres in South Punjab, West Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh. It is central Punjab where their business interests are, it is here where they have created a large consumption-driven economy and it is here where they play in housing societies and housing authorities. They have too much at stake to think rationally about what lies ahead. They have their heads buried in the sand hoping the music will never stop. They chant “save the planet” without realising that the planet is too big to manage its own survival. Will we do it?

The author can be reached on twitter at @aalimalik