KARACHI: Environmental degradation and climate change are affecting people in multiple ways across Pakistan and pose serious threat to the country’s future. All political parties must take cognizance of these challenges and incorporate them in their election manifestos.

This demand was put forward by a recently formed committee led by a senior environmental and agricultural expert and secretary general of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).

“As you all know that the campaign for election 2018 has kicked off and almost all political and religious parties are holding gatherings to attain public support through their programmes. However, it can be seen that all these parties are ignoring important issues of climate change and environmental degradation,” said Dr Pervaiz Amir, the regional expert for South Asia, Global Water Partnership and director of Pakistan Water Partnership.

‘Pakistan is seriously threatened by ecological degradation’

Highlighting the environmental challenges Pakistan faces, Dr Amir said that Pakistan was among the leading countries being hit by climate change which was already affecting people in multifaceted ways.

“Rising temperature, droughts, agricultural loss, melting of glaciers, changes in rain patterns, growing health issues and water problems are directly linked to climate change and their intensities are mounting with each passing day,” he pointed out.

According to him, the sectors of poverty and malnutrition will also be intensified with changes in climatic patterns.

“Poor will get poorer, falling behind further on [the] poverty line. Children, senior citizens ... everyone will be affected. Trend of migration from rural to urban areas will grow, leading to decline in agricultural and industrial labour. Burden on limited facilities for education, healthcare and other amenities will also increase with urbanisation. The media is also a reason which will lure people to shelter in urban areas,” he explained.

These challenges required that all political parties prioritise and include these issues in their manifestoes, he demanded.

Rising temperature — Pakistan in focus

Responding to a question, he explained that though Pakistan’s share in the global emissions of greenhouse gasses was minimal, the country was among the top countries vulnerable to climate changes.

“On April 5 this year, the world’ highest temperature was recorded in Nawabshah. Climate change will likely hit five sectors of the country; agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, industries, water and health,” he said, adding that the government must take notice of these warning signs and seriously focus on environment and climate change.

A related area that required immediate attention, he pointed out, was deforestation which, he said, was rampant across the country as the timber mafia operated freely and communities generally lacked awareness of the important role forests played in human life.

“Urban lands are hastily being converted into high-rises, diminishing the green cover and urban forestry of cities. To cater to this deforestation, we have to run campaigns on fast footing to protect trees as nurturing trees is more important than planting trees.

“Also, we need to develop nurseries in large numbers across the country. This is because we are lagging far behind the international standards on green cover according to which each country should have at least 25pc (of its total land) green cover. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s green cover is only four per cent of its total land,” he said.

On desertification and how climate change would impact it, Dr Amir said that a large number of areas in Pakistan were facing desertification mainly due to lack of rainfall and interest by successive governments to address this issue.

“Urbanisation is rising at a fast pace, which may reach to 60pc of total Pakistan’s population in the next 20 to 25 years. That will harm the country’s environment as well as put further pressure on urban resources, leading to increased stress in urban population,” he warned.

Asked about food insecurity, he said that agriculture would bear direct impacts of climate change and would have a huge impact on Pakistan, being an agrarian country.

“That’s why food scarcity and price hike is increasing these days. It is expected Pakistan will have less agricultural production in coming years, affecting 20 to 30pc wheat yield and 15pc rice,” he observed.

Sharing his concern, Dr Qaiser Sajjad representing the PMA said that health and environment had never been government priorities in 70 years and the results of this consistent flawed approach were evident to everyone.

“The worst sufferers are the poor and we believe they will experience more hardships (as compared to population with better means) in the face of increased environmental degradation and climate change,” he said, adding that if the government could only provide clean drinking water to its population, it would help prevent many diseases.

Dr Sajjad informed journalists that he had written letters to heads of all political parties, inviting them to share their election manifestos at the PMA and communicate their plans for the future.

“I am yet to receive any response for my letters that I wrote over two weeks ago,” he said, adding that a committee had been set up to pursue these important issues with political parties.

Other members of the committee are Muqtada Mansoor, Tauseef Alam, Mahmoud Alam Khalid, all three journalists, and Dr Waqar Ahmed of Karachi University’s Institute of Environmental Studies.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2018