Pakistan is geographically located in a region, where the impact of climate change has been strongly felt. Climate change is one of the leading challenges faced by Pakistan today and Pakistan is not alone in this, many developed countries are facing the same issue, making it a global issue.
Climate change has drastically affected our country leading to the issues of global warming, heatwaves, floods and an unprecedented temperature rise. Many factors have contributed to this issue, including; deforestation, air pollution and the government’s negligence and mismanagement towards this issue.
According to the Inform Risk Index, Pakistan has some of the highest disaster risk levels in the world, ranked 18 out of 191 countries. Climate change is more than an environmental disaster, it is also a social and economic crisis that requires us to confront issues of inequality on many levels. Due to climate change in Pakistan, major human health consequences can occur such as starvation, vector-borne diseases like dengue fever and an increase in the burden of aquatic infections.
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Monsoon rains triggered Pakistan’s most devastating floods in recent decades. Pakistan has hit by a number of floods in the past as well but in 2022, floods in Pakistan submerged one-third of the country, affecting 33 million people, half of whom were children. As a result of those devastating floods many people lost their lives, went missing and many of them lost their houses as well.
Some of the major factors that contributed to these floods were: the monsoon rains, intense heatwaves as well as the melting of the glaciers, all of these factors linked to the issue of climate change in one way or another. As a result, the local people have urged the authorities to take more strict actions to combat this issue.
UNICEF played a critical role along with other local NGOs in providing shelters, medicine and education to children affected by the 2022 floods was remarkable. But, here yet again the question arises of why our government fails to provide these basic health and educational facilities to the flood-affected people every single time. The reason for this is their lack of concern, they are more interested in their political careers rather than doing something for the benefit ofthose people.
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Smog in Pakistan has become another alarming environmental concern, particularly in urban areas like Lahore and Karachi. This hazardous blend of smoke and fog is primarily the result of vehicle emissions, industrial pollution and crop residue burning. Every year during the winter months, the dense smog engulfs these cities, leading to health problems and reduced visibility.
Former Foreign Minister and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at a seminar on “The Urgency OF Action: Climate Change and it’s Implications on Human Rights in Pakistan said that Pakistan with its vast landscape and rich history, was the epicentre of the climate crisis and the evidence was clear and could not be ignored. He also noticed that access to clean air and safe drinking water were not luxuries, but basic human rights, which were as essential as freedom of speech, the promise of good education and assurance of a fair trial.
