Poor governance and degradation of Pakistan’s natural resources is jeopardising its food security, health and livelihood of its poorest citizens, climate change experts said on Tuesday.
Global Change Impact Studies Centre Agriculture Head Mohsin Iqbal said that in Pakistan, as in other South Asian countries, climate change is expected to lead to declines in crop yields, particularly for rice, maize, wheat and potatoes.
“In addition, flooding and power supply disruptions will badly affect things like processing, refrigeration, storage and transport of food,” Mohsin Iqbal said.
Experts are of the opinion that Pakistan gets 60 to 80 percent of its water for crop production from snow and ice melt from the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya region in the country’s north. But faster glacier melt and changing rainfall mean rivers may carry too much water at some times of year and not enough at others.
Politically this issue of climate change is taking seriously by the country’s political forces. Nevertheless, political parties are laying stress on environmental issues in their public rallies.
Government ministers say that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s plan for the reforestation scheme of the Billion Tree Tsunami is aimed at countering the effects of climate change. This was also part of the party’s 2013 manifesto.
Recently, the Climate Change Ministry has talked about various steps for environmental structure in Pakistan.
State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul proposed two future projects that are Apni Shahrah and Watra as part of the strategy to counter the effects of the climate change.
Published in Daily Times, December 19th 2018.