Climate change /water / energy /Environment/Earth

1/04/2019

The state of water in Sindh

Shahab Usto
IN December 2016, I had filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, praying for
the appointment of a commission to probe whether people in Sindh received clean drinking water,
and whether the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) had discharged its statutory
responsibilities. The apex court appointed a commission headed by a sitting judge of the Sindh High
Court, Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro. During its one-year tenure, the Justice Kalhoro commission
produced two comprehensive reports containing, inter alia, findings and recommendations.

It must be stated that the commission’s findings have never been disputed by the provincial
government or by any other person mainly because they were drawn from a variety of sources —
official records, government functionaries, forensic reports, experts’ input, public hearings, judicial
proceedings, and the inspections of water and sanitation infrastructure. The conclusion that the
commission reached was: “people of Sindh are not drinking clean water’. The mixing of untreated
sewage with freshwater bodies — rivers, canals, lakes, ponds etc — was found to be the prime cause
of contamination. In fact, there are 750 points of confluence where raw sewage meets with
freshwater bodies, turning the entire 8,000-kilometre-long provincial irrigation network into a big
conduit of drainage.

A grim finding of the commission on water is that virtually the entire water and sanitation
infrastructure had been nonexistent or flawed.

Another grim finding of the commission is that virtually the entire water and sanitation
infrastructure — water filtration plants, sewage treatment plants, landfill sites, water-testing
laboratories, solid and liquid waste disposals, hospital incinerators and so on — had been for years
nonexistent or flawed to the point of dysfunction. Yet no past or present government paid heed to
this ‘existential’ issue, though billions of rupees were spent every year in the name of development,
repair and maintenance of the water and sanitation-related facilities.

A case in point is the Karachi Water and Sewage Board. It has about 14,000 employees and an
annual budget upwards of Rs6 billion. But none of the city’s seven water-filter plants produced
water as per WHO standards. Likewise, all three sewage treatment plants with a cumulative capacity
of treating 160MGD had been dysfunctional for many years. As a result, the sea receives 450MGD of
raw industrial, municipal and hospital effluents, besides the oil slick and tar balls, causing
“degradation of water quality, habitat loss, localised eutrophication, and metal accumulation in fish
and shrimps”. Moreover, one-third of the water (650MGD) is lost to theft, line leakages, adulteration
and so on. The quantum of loss can be measured by the fact that only one per cent of water is
supplied through water tankers in the entire city.
The commission also found that underground water that is supplied to many cities in the province,
including Larkana and Shikarpur, had turned brackish, and hence unfit for human consumption. Lack
of sanitation, excess withdrawal of groundwater, low precipitation, encroachments on drainage
outlets, and use of pesticides are some causes behind the degradation of underground water. But
the provincial government has remained blissfully oblivious to the increasing loss of this important
source of water.

Reverse osmosis plants are yet another source of water that is being tapped largely in the Thatta,
Badin and Tharparkar districts. Indeed, RO plants present a classic case study in bad governance and
corruption. Hundreds of plants were installed without following the rules; in many cases a single
contractor installed, operated and maintained them; although the installation, operation and
maintenance of these plants were financed by as many as five departments/agencies, involving
billions of rupees, yet none of them ever bothered to monitor the quality or quantity of water
produced by these plants.

It is proven by the fact that none of the 2,000-odd RO plants had a water-testing lab or water-
measuring meter. No wonder, the commission concluded that the entire scheme was “nothing but a
farce”, and recommended an investigation to fix the responsibility on, and award punishment to, the
officers concerned.

There are about 2,100 rural water supply and drainage schemes which cater to the needs of the
rural population. Most of the schemes were found to be dysfunctional mainly due to bad
governance and local councils’ incapacity to operate them. Therefore, while the government spends
billions of rupees annually on these schemes, the people continue to consume contaminated water,
endure insanitary conditions, thus increasingly falling prey to various water-borne ailments eg
hepatitis, kidney failure, typhoid, skin lesions, diarrhoea, etc.

Sadly, the commission also didn’t find the state of public hospitals enviable. Most of the
district/tertiary hospitals lacked clean drinking water facilities, many suffered from bad sanitary
conditions, and none had incinerators, and related arrangement, to dispose of hospital waste in
accordance with Hospital Waste Management Rules, 2014. Deplorably, the dangerous waste was
dumped on the open grounds to be lifted along with municipal waste, which polluted not only the
hospital environment but also posed risks to the health of local communities.

Another glaring instance of delinquency on the part of public functionaries noted by the commission
was the total absence of a solid waste disposal system, notwithstanding the fact that Solid Waste
Management Board had been created through an act in 2014. Therefore, there are no designated
landfill sites anywhere in the province, including Karachi, and everyday thousands of tons of garbage
are thrown into the drain nullahs, canals or the sea, or burnt on the open grounds, aggravating
environmental degradation.
However, the most lamentable fact that came to the notice of the commission was the failure of
Sepa, the provincial environmental regulator, to discharge its statutory responsibilities. Some of
Sepa’s multiple failures are evident from the emission of untreated industrial effluents,
contamination of irrigation system, degeneration of underground water, and degradation of the
coastal belt. No wonder, the commission concluded unhappily that Sepa had yet to establish
‘justification for its existence’.

It would be worth discussing in a subsequent article the tasks that the Supreme Court assigned to
the water commission headed by retired justice Amir Hani Muslim, to what extent he achieved those
tasks in his one-year tenure, and whether the commission should continue.

Masters of disaster
Shahzad Sharjeel April 01, 2019Facebook Count
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FARMING communities across Pakistan panicked at recent reports in dailies that the country faced
the risk of a super flood this year. It transpired that the reports were based on a briefing to the
National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources by government officials. The
Meteorological Department was quick to clarify that there was no scientific method to predict floods
so far out in advance and that record snowfall in the northern parts of the country did not
necessarily mean there would be floods.

Dig a little deeper into how and why this alarm was sounded and it becomes clear that it was aimed
at driving home a point, a very pertinent one, that the country is not at all prepared for a major flood
and that the funds allocated for flood preparedness were absolutely inadequate. Even if the
possibility of floods due to rising temperatures and greater snowmelt combined with monsoon rains
was somewhat overplayed, the intentions seemingly were noble. The method could have been more
discreet though.

Super flood or not, is the country capable of handling a large-scale natural calamity or a man-made
disaster? If the answer is in the negative, one must ask if we can afford such complacency after the
2005 earthquake. It has been almost a decade and half since the quake claimed 70,000 lives. Pockets
of the affected population are yet to be fully rehabilitated. Schools, roads and other damaged
infrastructure are still to be completely rebuilt.
It is mainly the LGs’ job to tackle disaster. But do they even exist?

Another call to come out of our comatose state came in the shape of 2010 floods. An area of almost
38,000 square kilometres remained submerged for weeks, impacting some 20 million people.
Reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and livelihood relief alone were estimated to be $10
billion.

The National Disaster Management Authority and its provincial counterparts do exist. However,
most people do not realise that their mandates hardly go beyond coordination and liaison between
various government entities that are mobilised when disaster strikes. The major responsibility of
disaster management lies with the local governments. Do they even exist in the country? Where
some remnants of local government can be seen, are they up to the task in terms of technical
expertise and capacity? How about resources, both financial and in terms of equipment?

Just imagine what would happen if a major fire were to break out in a city like Karachi or Lahore.
Isolated fires in individual buildings result in loss of life because those whose responsibility it is to
respond to such emergencies lack capacity and wherewithal, and a general lack of preparedness all
around. When did you last witness, leave alone participate, in a fire drill in a government or private
building? It may be the government’s job to ensure that construction designs meet safety standards
like emergency exits, fire extinguishing apparatus etc, but it is our lives we are talking about here.

Why do the occupants of public or private office buildings and high-rise apartments need
government departments to underline the importance of evacuation drills? Do they even know how
many elderly or disabled persons on any given floor of a building or house would require assistance
during evacuation? Are people trained to help them, or have volunteers been designated to ensure
orderly evacuation? Have safe areas been identified for people to congregate after the evacuation?

No, governments don’t do this and it is not their responsibility to organise communities to take care
of themselves. Go to the internet and download guidelines for doing most of this. Do not forget that
our cities are densely populated and stampedes cannot be ruled out in emergencies.

There is, however, no getting away from the fact that the bulk of disaster management responsibility
lies with various tiers of government. Particularly, the disaster prevention and mitigation part where
advance planning, policymaking and its implementation are concerned. Every government parrots
the donor advice that growth needs to be led by the private sector, but does precious little to
encourage the insurance industry to introduce products tailored for traders and farmers. In case of a
disaster, the rich should be recompensed by their insurers, while the government helps the less
fortunate.
It is a shame that despite muddling through countless emergencies in the last seven decades,
officialdom still cannot tackle something as basic as a damage-and-needs assessment which is
nothing more than an audit of the scale and extent of losses and prioritisation of areas in need of
relief and rehabilitation. Every time a calamity occurs, we go running to the donors requesting them
to do the damage assessment because ‘we lack capacity’. In truth, we lack credibility. We ask the
donors to assess the damage so that we can play the victim and ask for donations and loans.

Water wars
F.S. Aijazuddin April 04, 2019Facebook Count
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THE pins have been removed from live grenades held by both India and Pakistan. Only experts know
when they will explode. None of us innocents knows where.

The spectre of war has remained a permanent resident in the subcontinent since 1947. It has
bunkered itself so deep in our sub-consciousness that now confrontation comes more naturally to us
than conciliation, argument before agreement.

On both sides of the border that connects Himalayan heights to Sindh’s shores, jingoists demand
armed conflict while peaceniks want an ‘uninterrupted, uninterruptible’ dialogue. Both are unaware
that national belligerence and pacifism are in fact conditioned by topography.

Roads can be halted at the border, but who owns flowing water?

The Westphalian concept of nation states is tested whenever territorial boundaries have to contend
with nature. Who owns a mountain that straddles an international border? Who owns a river that
flows through one or more countries? Who has the right to use that water, and more vexatiously,
should one upper riparian country have the power of denial over a lower riparian one?

In 1947, Cyril Radcliffe did not apply his mind to such niggling questions. So when Viceroy
Mountbatten suggested he should continue as governor general of both India and Pakistan as a
conciliator, Quaid-i-Azam refused. He did not want Mountbatten acting the guilt-ridden surgeon,
offering to rectify a botched amputation. Mountbatten did remain in New Delhi as India’s G-G until
June 1948, but he did little to prevent sores from festering — contentious issues such as Hyderabad,
Jammu & Kashmir, Junagadh, and most critically, the ownership and the use of the waters of the
Punjab.
Within two years of Independence of each other, the new countries came near to blows over water.
Our foreign minister, Chaudhry Zafrulla, warned India that any “diminution in that flow or even a
threat of interruption would have the effect of converting millions of acres of fertile lands into arid
wastes”. Pakistan, he hinted, would be prepared to go to war to protect its right to water.

A recent scholar Daniel Haines in his book Indus Divided (2017) has drawn a distinction between
sovereign territory and sovereignty over resources that pass through that territory. Roads and
railways can be halted at the border, but who owns flowing water? It recognises no check-post or
customs barriers, only dams and canals.

It took India and Pakistan 13 years of raucous recrimination over the sharing of the Indus rivers
before they agreed to mediation by the World Bank. An experienced US water manager David E.
Lilienthal was put to rectify the damage caused by Radcliffe. The resultant Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)
of 1960, in working order even today, never resolved the basic conundrum: “The dispute was not
simply an engineering question with a technical answer [.] Access to, and the ability to manipulate
river water formed a key plank of state power in the region.”

Sixty years later, the Indian government still clings to its position that, under the IWT, it can allow
water to flow into Pakistan but refuse to relinquish its claim to sovereignty over the Indus basin
rivers.

In 1960, China was on the far, inaccessible side of the Himalayas. Today, China’s declared interest in
the modernisation of agriculture in Pakistan has brought China into the Indus basin. Access to river
water is a sine qua non for the success of the CPEC’s agricultural projects. An arid Pakistan is of no
use to China. The malevolent twist of an upstream valve by India could well be viewed by China as an
unacceptable provocation.

China’s seed-pearl port Gwadar gives it more than a view of the Indian Ocean. It is a lighthouse of
China’s maritime ambitions. President Xi Jinping has declared China will take an “interest in the sea,
understand the sea, and strategically manage the sea, and continually do more to promote China’s
efforts to become a maritime power”.

To achieve this, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) intends by 2030 to commission “ninety-
nine submarines, four aircraft carriers, 102 destroyers and frigates, twenty-six corvettes, seventy-
three amphibious ships and 111 missile craft”. Ten years from now, China with 415 ships will have
the world’s largest navy. It will do more than patrol the Indian Ocean. It might rename it.
For centuries, India has luxuriated in a landlocked mentality. Only now has it realised that in addition
to its 3,323-kilometre north-western border, it has an equally vulnerable 7,516-km. coastline. The
Indian Navy’s recent Exercise Sea Vigil — the ‘first ever’ on such a large scale — boasts of India’s
preparedness to defend any assault by sea. India has cause to be vigilant. It has a pendulous
peninsula of states south of Mumbai to defend.

Will the next war be over access to water from the Himalayas? And will its outcome be decided by
nuclear missile-bearing submarines lurking below the surface of the Sino-Indian Ocean?

The long shot of ‘black gold’

Sohaib R. Malik April 06, 2019Facebook Count
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AT a recent rally in Thar, Prime Minister Imran Khan thundered that the desert region’s abundant
coal reserves — its ‘black gold’ — would bring prosperity to the people there. Coming from a self-
proclaimed environmentalist, these words are not only disappointing, but potentially dangerous. In
fact, they may pose an existential threat to not only the people of Thar and Sindh, but the entire
nation.

When the prime minister launched the Clean Green Pakistan initiative last October and promoted
the idea of the ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’, it triggered a sense of optimism among those who care
deeply about the nation’s sustainable future. Perhaps for the first time, it appeared as if the reins of
the state were finally taken over by someone who was driven by a vision that encompassed the long-
term well-being of the people and not just his own re-election. That optimism seems to be eroding
now.

It is a fact that the people of Thar are devoid of economic opportunities. With a population of 1.7
million — 75 per cent live below the poverty line, which shoots up with every drought — the region’s
welfare should be our policymakers’ top priority. The available choices, however, should be
evaluated on the basis of a criterion that ensures multidimensional development. In this regard, coal
is possibly the least potent means of all.

What plans are in place to offset the looming damage of coal-related commercial activities for Thar?

To start with, Thar’s coal deposits comprise inferior quality lignite and sub-bituminous
characteristics. The Geological Survey of Pakistan analysis proves that these are among our least-
valued coal grades due to the high moisture content and low heating value. Furthermore, of the oft
purported ‘reserves’ of 175bn tonnes, less than 5pc are measured and the rest are theoretical
estimates. The proven reserves of 7bn tonnes are not fully recoverable either.

The PML-N administration built an entire case on the massive coal power buildout on the basis that
the fleet will provide cheap electricity and improve the balance of payment. If the present
government believes in a fraction of that narrative, it must realise that it is misled. The operational
and permitted plants vividly indicate why tariffs shouldn’t be accorded for coal power producers in
the future.

Between 2015 and 2016, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority granted tariffs to
developers for about 9,500MW of coal capacity. Over 60pc of that capacity will burn imported fuel
because policymakers agreed that it is a better alternative to Thar’s lignite. Moreover, coal power
producers were guaranteed an overly lucrative rate of return, which could be higher than the rates
offered for other technologies during that period and was awarded at the behest of the federal
government.

Since imported fuel cost is over half the total tariff, these plants could worsen our trade imbalance
through 2050 and generate expensive electricity. A case in point is the 1,320MW Sahiwal plant,
which produced power for Rs11.25/kWh in February 2019, compared to the originally estimated
tariff of 8.2 Rs/kWh. The cost for the consumer soars if the equity and loan repayments are
repatriated in a foreign currency since the rupee has depreciated substantially.

On the technical front, coal power plants offer some merits which are overvalued by bureaucrats
who usually run the show in ministries. With uninterrupted fuel supply, coal plants can provide
electricity without varying generation and load. The so-called baseload characteristic of these plants
causes inflexibility because they should keep running regardless of the electricity demand.
Notwithstanding the fact that our power demand is highly seasonal ranging between 25,000MW to
10,000MW, depending on the weather— the politicians and bureaucrats professed the need for
baseload generation and permitted an excessive capacity of coal-fired power projects.

The coal power value chain emits large amounts of pollutants and clean water is among the key
input requirements for thermal power stations. If employed, the Tharis will be paid poorly to ensure
“commercial viability” of the mines. While at work, the miners will be exposed to chemical
substances and coal dust that cause a host of lung and respiratory diseases. For those who escape
these miseries, the stacks of power stations will emit enough sulphur, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and
mercury that they will be worse off by not leaving their ancestral lands.

On behalf of the Tharis, it is worth asking the provincial and federal authorities: when coal projects
are building infrastructure to consume trillions of litres of water every year, why do the locals not
have access to clean drinking water? What mitigation plans are in place to offset the looming
damage of coal-related commercial activities for the Thar region and for the rest of the country? The
pitiful irony is that the functionaries and politicians who are wrestling to take the ‘credit’ for Thar’s
recently built coal power project blame each other for the region’s destitution, and its starving
children.

Surely, the people of Thar deserve better. They would be better served not by earning a few
thousand rupees while mining for some billionaire corporates of Karachi and Beijing, but by
economic opportunities that do not jeopardise their health and environment — and are identified in
consultation with them.

Interestingly, at the same rally, the prime minister lauded Thar’s solar energy endowment. He rightly
noted that instead of constructing a miles-long grid, solar power is a cost-effective technology for
the region’s power needs. I wish someone in the audience had asked that since such a commendable
realisation exists, why are the policymakers in Karachi and Islamabad drawing up plans for the local
villages’ displacement. Why is the rest of the country being deprived of this ‘yellow gold’ (solar
energy), which is available through the length and breadth of the country? Arguably, Clean Green
Pakistan and massive coal mining in Thar cannot go hand in hand. We will have to choose one or the
other.

Breathing poison
EditorialApril 08, 2019Facebook Count
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THE reality is inescapable, and it is terrifying: the air we breathe is killing us. Pakistan is second on
the list of the top 10 countries with the highest mortality due to air pollution; India and China tie for
first place. These are among the findings of a major study by the US-based Health Effects Institute
and compiled in a report titled State of Global Air 2019. According to its data, a total of 2.4m people
died in China and India from air pollution-related conditions in 2017; in Pakistan the same year,
128,000 deaths were attributed to the same cause. The health burden is incalculable: air pollution is
the fifth leading cause of premature death globally, which makes it more lethal than malaria, road
accidents, malnutrition or alcoholism, and nearly as deadly as tobacco use. Children are particularly
susceptible due to their physiology. In fact, minors in South Asia can expect to have their lives cut
short by 30 months due to the toxic air. Excessive particulate matter is a daily peril for Pakistanis:
according to the report, 52pc of people in this country are exposed to household air pollution. That’s
not all: Pakistan’s entire population lives in areas that exceed WHO’s air quality guidelines.

These chilling figures call for an immediate, top-down course correction. Not only do we have a
national emergency on our hands, but the situation has a bearing on our international
commitments. Among the SDGs are specific environmental targets, including improvement in
ambient air quality. Legislators had a recent opportunity to engage with experienced advocates in
this field. Air Quality Asia, a global advocacy group that drives change through national policy, held a
meeting in late March with a gathering of parliamentarians. Indeed, the country’s leadership has a
critical role to play if we are to stave off disaster. Examples from our own part of the world illustrate
how decisive government action can turn back the clock on toxic air. China, for instance, declared
war on particulate matter a few years ago, strictly implemented emission limit regulations, and
began to adopt clean-energy technology. As a result, it has begun to see steadily falling rates of air
pollution. Pakistan, however, has adopted an inexplicably paradoxical approach. While
environmental awareness and the importance of a ‘green Pakistan’ have increased, the country is
embracing coal-fired power ever more tightly. Can cheap electricity ever be a substitute for
breathable air?

Threat to wheat crop

EditorialApril 20, 2019Facebook Count
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HEAVY rains accompanied by high winds and sporadic hailstorms in parts of Punjab earlier this week
have damaged the standing wheat crop on a vast area. In a few southern districts, the crop has been
flattened, and in others the harvest is delayed. The exact extent of the damage is now being
assessed by the agriculture bureaucracy to quantify the losses. The food security ministry, however,
seems to indicate that the damage is not significant. Hopefully, it will not affect the overall provincial
output target of 19.5m tonnes for the present harvest. Yet many individual smallholders may have
suffered substantial losses that will increase their indebtedness and reliance on middlemen for
expensive loans for future harvests. The government has promised to compensate the affected
farmers once the girdawari (crop assessment) is complete. It has always been the standard official
response. This practice needs to change. Immediately, the government should not only compensate
the affected farmers but also ensure that the smallholders get access to cheaper loans to buy inputs
for their future crops. Microfinance banks are well placed to serve the needs of the small farmers,
who form more than 80pc of the landholdings below five acres because of their presence in remote
areas, if the government agrees to subsidise the loans. A workable plan needs to be designed where
growers can easily get insurance for their crops against calamities that are beyond human control.

The recent unusual rains are but a sign of the changing climate of the region. The change has
become more visible in recent years in the shape of unpredictable weather, new diseases, increased
pest attacks, diminishing crop output, etc. If not tackled on a war footing, the changing climate could
indeed affect the nation’s food security and have a deep impact on the overall economy of the
country, which largely depends on agriculture. This week’s rains, for example, have not only
damaged the wheat output but also delayed cotton sowing in the affected districts. It is time the
government took the lead in educating farmers about changing weather patterns, improving
extension services to train them in modern cultivation practices and new technologies, developing
climate-resilient seed varieties, and bringing farmers, researchers and policymakers on to one
platform so that they can develop solutions based on modern methods to mitigate the effects of
climate change on crops. Otherwise, we should prepare ourselves for greater damage to the
agricultural sector.

Earth Day 2019

EditorialApril 22, 2019Facebook Count
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TODAY marks Earth Day. As Pakistan is hit once again by heavy rains and winds that have destroyed
the wheat crop in parts of Punjab, while Sindh protests water shortages that have restricted farming,
there is a need for greater awareness of the impact of the changing weather patterns. Whether we
acknowledge it or not, climate change is having an effect on every aspect of our lives. Matters will
get worse for future generations, unless we radically rethink our lifestyles. The destruction of planet
earth is just one of the consequences of a capitalistic world that goes about its business
unchallenged. Not only have we lost many lives due to extreme weather, the impact on largely
agrarian economies has been catastrophic. Pakistan is indeed one of the countries that is most
vulnerable to climate change, and has witnessed everything from flooding to heatwaves and
droughts in recent times. And there are plenty of instances of climate-based migration, most
recently in Badin. Along with destruction and the displacement faced by humans, the mass
extinction of animals and plant life is ongoing through deforestation and the obliteration of their
habitat, pollution and unlawful and excessive hunting.

The theme for Earth Day 2019 is to ‘Protect Our Species,’ which was created in response to the
destruction of natural life due to human activity. Pakistan boasts an enviable biodiversity, but much
of it is threatened due to the short-sightedness of our decision-makers. The current prime minister
calls himself an environmentalist, but labels are meaningless until they are translated into action.
Most people believe there is little that individuals can do at a private level to combat climate change,
as the responsibility falls on large corporations and politicians. But then, we have the example of 16-
year-old Greta Thunberg in Sweden. During a phone-meeting with a meteorologist in June 2018,
before she began her school strike, Greta told him: “You are not radical enough. I have to do
something myself.” That should be hint enough.

Untimely rains
Marwah Maqbool MalikApril 23, 2019Facebook Count
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THE worthy climate change minister must be eating her words right now. Quick to claim credit for
untimely rainfall, she has since disappeared after the same rainfall became tragic. The statement did
not suit a public office holder, much less of the climate change portfolio, and her absence after
devastating floods only makes it worse.

Recent thunder and hail storms have claimed dozens of lives and left many more injured. The
agricultural impact is huge: some estimates are that at least 150,000 tonnes of wheat crop have
been destroyed. Other crops affected include mustard, cotton, tomatoes, mango and citrus. Will the
minister now come forward and claim ‘credit’ for what now looks like God’s wrath?
What we witnessed recently is not new, and will happen again. We have had early rains, often called
‘pre-monsoon’ rains, for at least four consecutive years now. Floods have been a regular occurrence,
close to or during monsoon, for over a decade now. On average, our summers are now warmer, and
droughts more frequent. These changing weather patterns are local manifestations of a warming
planet that is causing a global change of climate.

Our urban citizens remain largely immune to any observable changes in climate, barring the
occasional outcry about increasingly hot summers. Talk to farmers instead, and they will describe in
lucid detail how shifting weather patterns have brought on new challenges including diseases,
untimely and erratic rains, lower yields, change of cropping cycles, and droughts.

Can our farming practices survive changing weather systems?

In the face of recent crop losses, the economy must now prepare for shortages and the associated
rise in prices. An impending shortage of our staple, wheat, means food security for the poorest will
be negatively impacted, further adding to the burdens inflicted by an already ailing economy.
Farmers are demanding compensation for their losses, which the government should reasonably
provide.

What next though? Must we wait for another year, only to repeat the cycle of weathering crises
without preparation, followed only by cash-based remedies?

Our weather systems are already changing and will continue to do so, arguably with greater severity,
affecting agriculture in the country (among many other sectors) and bringing forth new challenges
for food security. To address these challenges, we need to shift from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’
approaches that try to predict and prepare for impacts, reduce risks, and allocate required resources
to respond when crises strike.

To begin with, it is important to understand the full breadth and scope of climatic change impacts to
agriculture. We know that rain patterns have shifted, as have seasonal temperatures. Is the
conventional rice-cotton-sugarcane-wheat mix still viable? Can our agricultural practices survive
changes to type and availability of inputs such as water?

While farmers across the country have already started adapting their agricultural practices to
changing weather patterns, decisions about what crops to grow and how to grow them are still
driven by government policies that incentivise (or disincentivise) certain crops and technologies. We
need to conduct research on climate-resilient crop varieties, and subsequently encourage their
uptake among farmers. For small farmers, such adoption requires a push that only the government
can provide.
While natural phenomena like storms cannot be averted, preparing for them in advance can help
reduce losses to the farmer, as well as the government. Innovations like parametric insurance, that
indemnifies farmers against certain events, are being tested around the world (with mixed success).
This is not to say a solution that has worked for farmers in India or Mexico will work for farmers in
Pakistan. But we need to start thinking of innovative solutions, contextualised to Pakistan, which can
help us prepare better for climatic impacts.

Knowing better (predicting) helps to prepare better, which eventually helps deliver effective
responses. Warnings issued before disasters must be accurate and effective in what they
communicate, and also able to reach the people they are meant for. It is also not enough to warn
people and prescribe actions without having adequate facilities for those preventive actions to take
place — eg advising farmers to shift crops to safe storage when such storage spaces have not been
created or facilitated for small farmers beforehand.

Ultimately, we should realise that untimely rains and storms are not ‘divine blessings’ for
unprepared politicians to claim. Responding to one of the biggest challenges of our time requires
recognition of what we haven’t been doing and preparations for what, going ahead, we can and
absolutely must do. Most importantly, it requires that our leaders, especially those tasked with
handling climate change affairs, are educated on what climate change actually is.

A long-term forest policy

Haseeb AhmedApril 28, 2019Facebook Count
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RAPID climate change and high air-pollution levels require urgent investment in afforestation
programmes in Pakistan. Deforestation is a major cause of erosion of ecosystem services such as
carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Forests have direct and indirect linkages with nutrition and
food security via wild tree fruits and fuel wood, making them an important instrument in achieving
several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The current government has initiated the ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’, which aims at rapid afforestation
in all Pakistan’s provinces. Although it is a much-needed programme, there are concerns regarding
the sustainability and long-term viability of such initiatives. This is important given that other
political parties do not have a great record of preserving the environment.

The BTT needs to morph into a long-term, institutionalised forest policy that can provide maximum
environmental and economic benefits in line with the SDGs. In the absence of such a policy, any
change in the government setup can potentially impede the progress achieved so far towards
restoring our forest areas. Three aspects are particularly crucial.

Forest conservation should feature prominently in our scientific and political discourse.

Firstly, afforestation needs to be viewed by the Pakistani voter as any other development
infrastructure with clear personal and societal benefits. This can happen when an increased
emphasis on urban afforestation leads to mitigation of public health crises caused by urban heat
effect and air pollution. A clear improvement in air quality and reduction in pollution-induced health
issues are bound to get votes in major Punjab cities, which regularly rank high on the pollution scale.
This can bring environment to the centre of the political discourse. The present government should
link its urban afforestation initiatives to urban air quality in order to enhance citizens’ involvement in
sustaining green urban infrastructures.

Urban afforestation should be complemented by strict environmental regulations on vehicle

emissions and sustainability regulations for homes, buildings and offices. Clear emission reduction
and afforestation targets for each district and incentives for achieving those targets can bring about
transparency and efficiency.

The added advantage of pursuing green urbanisation is that its positive impact on society is
measureable through geospatial imaging and air quality indices, as well as marketable for political
parties interested in urban vote banks. Improving air quality in urban centres will result in a better
quality of life, lower the incidence of disease and decrease the burden on an already overtaxed
healthcare system.

Secondly, an optimal forest rotation policy that ensures economic viability of forests needs to be
installed, ie we need to grow, harvest and manage forests in a way that maximises their economic
benefits, reduces imports of forest products and helps us leapfrog towards a sustainable bio-
economy where local forests can provide wood, biofuels, bioplastics and recyclable packaging
materials without increasing deforestation rates.

Monitoring our forests to prevent harvesting without a licence will contribute to this economic
viability and rotation of forests. The PTI government has been effective in monitoring KP’s forests
and should replicate its performance across the country.

Lastly, stronger land tenure and private incentives in the form of payment for ecosystem services for
landowners need to be set up to increase conservation, forest cover, and long-term sustainability, ie
private landowners should be compensated for the environmental services their forests provide. The
methodology for valuation of such services in different regional contexts has been carefully studied
and is readily available. Such an initiative will incentivise individual landowners to protect forest
cover on their land, which means the government will not be entirely dependent on community —
or forest-level monitoring.

Further, the adoption of such incentives can optimise land use over time, ie high-productivity
agricultural land will continue to yield high-value crops and low-productivity land would be turned
into forest cover. There are several examples of successful implementation of such initiatives. In
2000, China launched its ‘Sloped Land Conversion Programme’ which paid farmers to convert
cropland on hillsides with high risk of soil erosion into forest; this led to a whopping 18 per cent
(1.2pc annually) increase in forest area in China.

Similarly, the Municípios Prioritários programme in Brazil led to historic reductions in deforestation
rates in the Amazon. The programme incentivised farmers to divert investment from clearing new
land for agriculture to capital investments in farming; this led to an increase in agricultural
productivity, suggesting that afforestation of agricultural land does not necessarily result in food-
security concerns. Additionally, these programmes have also been shown to alleviate poverty by
making the provision of ecosystem services economically desirable for low-income landowners.

To design and implement a long-term forest programme, forests and biodiversity conservation
should feature prominently in our scientific and political discourse. The implementation of such
programmes can be challenging. In some cases, a less-than-ideal implementation of such
programmes led to an increase in forest cover at the expense of high-productivity agricultural land,
which can result in reductions in the growth of agricultural production.

There can also be issues of financing for a country like Pakistan that is struggling to increase its tax
base and decrease expenditures. However, these programmes have generally been successful at
increasing forest cover, reducing carbon emissions and increasing biodiversity, leading to an overall
positive impact on societal welfare. Given the urgency of the situation, finding fiscal and political
space for a sustainable and profitable forest policy should be on top of the development agenda for
Pakistan if we want to tackle climate change and pollution.

Sindh’s water woes

EditorialJuly 11, 2019
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UNDER the scorching sun, they marched north, from Kharo Chan to Thatta. Approximately 1,500
people traversed 140km over the course of nearly one week by foot. The marchers had a singular
demand: the government should put an end to the water crisis they faced. Their lament is not new.
For years, the province has struggled with acute fresh water shortages and loss of land due to soil
erosion. For a country that contains a number of mighty and small rivers along its length and
breadth, it is nothing short of a tragedy that a basic necessity of life cannot be accessed by all its
citizens. The reasons for the current crisis are multifold: some allege mismanagement of water, or
decry the increase in illegal fish farms and large-scale irrigation along the Indus. Others bring up
provincial hegemony, which results in smaller provinces being neglected and not receiving their due
share. Sindh, in particular, is largely dependent on the Indus to meet its water needs for drinking and
agricultural purposes. It is supposed to receive 42pc of the shared water from the Indus basin,
according to the Water Apportionment Accord 1991, but experts argue the figure needs to be
revised as it does not take into consideration the province’s current population numbers and
changed landscape. Additionally, the mangroves that once protected the coastal belt from sea
intrusion have been destroyed on a large scale due to increased salinity in the water, along with
rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. Despite several replantation drives conducted over the past
two decades, there has been a great loss of land, particularly in the areas between Keti Bandar and
Shah Bandar. According to environmentalists and farmers, much of the Indus delta has now been
engulfed by horizontal sea expansion, and its economy and way of life are threatened.

Some have warned of a worsening situation in the near future, predicting large-scale climate based
migration. The reality of climate change cannot be denied any longer as it threatens lives and
livelihoods. Already, the province has suffered greatly and witnessed both floods and droughts. A
water policy that is people-centric at its core and takes the current context of the province into mind
is the need of the hour. Let’s not forget that water is also a basic human right.

Impending disaster

Dr Noman AhmedMay 06, 2019Facebook Count

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ADDRESSING the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing on April 26, Prime
Minister Imran Khan identified climate change as a key challenge faced by developing countries,
including ours. The observation was spot-on. A climate change profile of Pakistan shows that the
country’s annual mean temperature has increased by 0.5 degree Celsius, and likely to increase by a
further 3°C in the next 70 years. Annual precipitation rates have increased slightly and displayed
substantial variation. The sea level, which increased by 10 centimetres in the last century, will
increase by 60cm by the end of this one. It is adequately proven that climate change is not a myth,
but a reality.

Pakistan is affected by various climate change fallouts caused by global and local actions. Besides
common global factors such as carbon emissions and rising oceans, issues specific to Pakistan
include droughts, unpredictable precipitation rates and monsoons, acid rains, depletion of water
aquifers, spread of water-logging/salinity, melting glaciers, flash floods, and depletion of forest cover
and marine pollution. Thus, sizeable damage has been done as a consequence of nascent
development processes and locally induced factors.

It is vital to note that these impacts are a visible cause of losses in productivity, livelihoods and
redundancy of precious ecological assets. Pakistan ranks 135th in terms of per capita greenhouse gas
emissions, but is the seventh-most affected by climate-related impacts. While it is wise to take a
proactive stance in global climate change initiatives, mitigating local causes is as important and
urgent.

Institutional responses towards the challenges are not promising.

Pakistan’s coastal marine environment is facing a catastrophe — ironically at the hands of its very
users, through deforestation of its mangroves in southern Karachi and nearby islands, mainly due to
large real-estate developments. Researchers have also found that local people uproot and plunder
budding plants for mundane utilisation such as for firewood. Uneven land reclamation by ambitious
developers has cut the water flow, leading to the mangroves’ demise.

Marine ecology is also impacted by raw sewage inflow. At present, 400m gallons of sewage is
pushed into the Arabian Sea from Karachi on a daily basis, constantly degrading the coastline’s micro
environment. Oil spills from ships are another source of pollution. About 0.09m tons of used oil is
discharged along Karachi’s coast annually. All of these contribute to the various climate factors that
need to be scientifically analysed for proper prevention, mitigation and adaptation plans.

The Indus delta’s precious ecosystem is another case in point. It is spread across 0.6m hectares
between Korangi and Sir Creek. This habitat relies on freshwater outflows from the Indus. Research
has shown that 35MAF water flows down the delta, only three months in a year. Despite
interprovincial conflicts and claims, it is found that the estuaries run dry for most of the year. The
sea’s ingress and its impact on soil quality are two principal hazards faced by local communities. High
salinity adversely impacts aquatic life. Overharvesting of marine resources, natural meandering of
creeks and grazing by livestock are some of the concerns.

In Pakistan, institutional responses towards climate change challenges are slow and not promising.
Planned, sustained actions are immediately needed to ensure existing cropping patterns, water
conservation, protection of life and people’s assets, combating vulnerabilities to lesser income
groups and, eventually, curtailing social dislocations. Meteorologists and other professionals have
already predicted impending droughts and reduction in water availability.

For food production and conservation of settlements, it is vital to prepare a mitigation and
adaptation strategy with political consensus. If food prices soar, it can lead to social and political
upheavals. It is also likely that the country may suffer a greater scale of climate-induced migration
syndrome. For a country that is already grappling with security- and conflict-based dislocations, a
further wave of population displacements will prove quite harmful.

Some climate change responses have been launched. The prime minister mentioned his
government’s flagship tree plantation drives. This is a step in the right direction, but we still need a
national spatial strategy for scientific planning of land uses. National and regional land utilisation
must be documented with an objective of conserving existing forest cover, identify and preserve
biodiversity, indicate impending environmental threats due to mega developmental projects, and
spell out mitigation measures. A national debate on curbing energy intensive consumption patterns
is also necessary. By returning to low-carbon lifestyles, we may stem the damage.

UN environment report

EditorialMay 05, 2019Facebook Count

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THE UN has compiled an expansive draft report on the state of the world’s environment, and as the
document’s key findings indicate, there is reason for grave concern. What the report sums up is the
fact that due to decades of overconsumption and unsustainable lifestyles, humans have had a
devastating impact on the planet. In particular, a growing population requires tens of billions of
tonnes of resources; this is having a debilitating impact on the land, the rivers and seas, and the air.
The figures are indeed alarming. According to the estimates, 75pc of land, 40pc of oceans and 50pc
of rivers “manifest severe impacts of degradation”. One does not have to be an environmental
scientist to realise that plastic refuse is choking our drains and floating in our seas, untreated sewage
is flowing into our waters and destroying marine life, and toxic air is making it hard for us to breathe.

But although the prognosis is grim, a poisoned dystopian future can be avoided if the international
community — especially the industrialised states who tend to be the biggest polluters — come up
with a workable plan of action to combat the effects of environmental degradation and climate
change. While population control should be a central plank in the strategy, increasing the use of
renewables in the energy mix can also go a long way in reducing our carbon footprint. Moreover,
there must be a rationalisation of the use and manufacture of plastic. For example, in Pakistan, the
ubiquitous plastic ‘shopper’ has wrought considerable damage. The move should be towards more
environment-friendly materials, eventually phasing out single-use plastics. While some critics have
said this country has no proper climate change policy, the fact is that the whole global community
must work on a common plan, as environmental degradation does not confine itself to borders. And
in this regard, those who have withdrawn from major climate accords — such as the US — and other
developed states must play a bigger role in reducing their carbon footprint.

Heatstroke centre attack

EditorialMay 11, 2019Facebook Count

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IT is unfortunate that the ugly face of extremism and intolerance manifests itself in so many
different ways in this country. News emerging from Sukkur shows that extremist vigilantes are more
than willing to resort to violence to enforce their myopic code on others. On Thursday, armed men,
believed to be associated with a religious outfit, stormed a heatstroke camp set up in Sukkur and
started firing into the air. The camp had been set up by the local municipal corporation as
temperatures have been scorching in upper Sindh over the last several days, regularly crossing 40°C.
The extremists had apparently warned the organisers to refrain from operating the camp during
fasting hours, arguing that it was a violation of the Ehteram-i-Ramazan Ordinance. When the
organisers resisted their diktat, the extremists attacked a camp in the Ayub Goth centre. The local
authorities have shut down the heatstroke camps and say they will be reopened after “necessary
consultations”.

No one has the right to take the law into their own hands. Besides, in their extreme religiosity and
enthusiasm to ‘punish’ others, the attackers blindly ignored the fact that Islamic injunctions allow
the sick, the infirm and travellers to not fast. Considering the high temperatures in the region, the
city administration did the right thing by setting up camps to ensure that those suffering from
heatstroke could easily get access to medical help and water. Moreover, even the Zia-era Ehteram-i-
Ramazan Ordinance allows exemptions for eateries in hospitals, railway stations, airports etc. The
bottom line is that fanatics cannot be allowed to impose their narrow views on others, that too at
gunpoint. The administration must trace out those involved in the attack and bring them to justice,
so that others are deterred from indulging in such violence and moral policing. In the longer run, it is
the collective responsibility of the state, society and the clergy to actively resist intolerance and
extremism, and to promote a more inclusive worldview.

Global climate jihad

Ashraf Jehangir QaziMay 11, 2019Facebook Count

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EXISTENTIAL challenges define the state of the world today. They shall determine the global,
regional and national contexts in which all countries, including Pakistan, will need to find appropriate
and sufficient responses to survive. They will provide the indispensable context for all specific
policies, whether domestic or external. The 21st century has already delivered this message.

Climate catastrophe is the greatest global challenge today. The prospect of ultimate doom and death
has been part of mankind’s experience and philosophical outlook (weltanschauung.) We are born,
we live, we die and our children and descendants preserve the species into a distant and
unimaginable future, until a time comes when mundane life comes to a natural end, whether with a
bang or a whimper.

Accordingly, the prospect of an eventual end to our species is internalised without much anxiety.
Death is part of life and possibly a transition to something eternal. But within the last decade
attitudes have begun to dramatically change. There is not just an emerging anxiety. There is a
developing panic over the prospect of climate calamity.

Until recently, scientists thought climate disaster was still too distant a prospect for ordinary people
to personally or politically get concerned about. Today, a near 100 per cent scientific consensus
regards climate change as an emerging global catastrophe hurtling towards us at ever-increasing
speed. Once in a thousand or hundred thousand-year climate events are now expected to occur
within decades, repeatedly, and sometimes simultaneously. Climate change will no longer be
cyclical. It will be exponential. Nature will not just become a stranger to mankind. It will be an
implacable and pitiless enemy.

There is not just an emerging anxiety. There is a developing panic over the prospect of climate
calamity.

Never in human history has such a prospect threatened, except possibly for a while during the Black
Death of the 14th century. Moreover, climate change is on the cusp of becoming irreversible —
unless mankind can come together in intelligent, innovative and institutionalised cooperation which
has also never happened before except — to an important but limited extent — through the UN
system.

According to the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences, there are three major existential challenges
confronting mankind today: climate change, nuclear conflict and democratic governance (ie the
exact opposite of what passes for it today). Success with regard to any of these challenges will make
success on the others more likely. But failure on one front will ensure failure on the other two. This
triple failure will render organised human existence on the planet increasingly difficult, and
eventually impossible. Moreover, climatologists now say this can happen much sooner than what
was assumed as recently as a decade ago. These forecasts could change yet again.

They could change for the better if at international, regional and national levels a climate emergency
is declared and leaders and societies begin to do a range of things recommended by the experts but
which have never been done before. Unfortunately, it is far more likely that, with the available
leaderships, climate change will become progressively worse — forever. If by the end of the century
the global temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius above what it was before the
Industrial Revolution, climatologists believe irreversible damage to the global environment will begin
to increasingly exceed the capacity of human society to either mitigate or adapt to. We are already
halfway there with the global temperature today estimated at roughly 1°C above what it was 200
years ago, and rising faster and faster.

The window of opportunity to take the thousands of measures needed to control and maybe reverse
this immensely complex process is fast closing. Most scientists are convinced that if carbon
emissions are not effectively reduced to zero by 2030 — a mere decade away — irreversible
processes will ensure global temperatures of 3°C or 4°C above the pre-industrial baseline well before
the end of the century. This alone would have innumerable calamitous consequences for human and
other plant and animal life-supporting ecologies on earth.

Irreversible climate change will inevitably limit mitigation capacities and progressively render
adaptation strategies dysfunctional. Unimaginable nightmare scenarios for our children and
grandchildren will unfold. In order not to unforgivably betray them we must begin to do the
impossible, starting NOW. No other issue, however critically important in itself, can be appropriately
addressed in any forum or even properly analysed outside this overwhelming context.

Nuclear disaster, if it happens, will be sudden and terminal. It will telescope extreme climate
catastrophe into a relative instant. Democratic governance — not the phony stuff — provides the
essential context for a foreign policy that can minimise the prospect for nuclear holocaust. As
suggested, it is also the political condition for urgent, sustained and effective resistance to climate
death.

Democratic governance does not necessarily equate to Western models of governance. They are by
and large no longer democratic in the West largely due to the rise of populism and racism on the one
hand and the excesses of corporate capitalism, militarism and extreme inequalities on the other. The
Chinese model, despite its many obvious flaws, is more inclusive and participatory and offers a
better guide to transformational governance and a better ordered world.

While it does not accept the norms of Western governance it also rejects the wretched norms of
soft-state, corrupt, short-term and class warfare governance that blight the prospects of so many
developing countries, including our own. Nor can the world afford a psychologically challenged liar at
the global helm who knows, but publicly denies and criminally ignores, the facts of climate
catastrophe.

Unlike nuclear disaster, which can be avoided any time before it actually occurs, climate change
beyond a rapidly approaching point insidiously becomes an irreversibly fatal catastrophe. Similarly,
genuine democratic governance is always possible. However, irreversible climate change, if not
averted, will make it impossible. This is why climate catastrophe is the single most comprehensive,
and now immediate, existential threat.
The question beckons: are we human beings or lemmings rushing to jump off the cliff? Only a global
climate jihad or climate crusade will provide an answer.

Ice on fire
Eric ShahzarJune 05, 2019
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The writer is an environmentalist and a lecturer.

PAKISTAN faces massive turbulence every time a natural disaster takes
place, with many blaming our ineffectual disaster management. One cannot
erase the horrific memories of the 2010 floods in which millions were
displaced and the economy took a $10 billion loss. While we have faced several
disastrous floods throughout our history, with climate change accelerating,
scientists predict that the country will soon be hit by ‘super floods’, causing
unprecedented damage. Our glaciers are vanishing; we must take action
before it is too late. Pakistan’s ice is on fire.

The destruction caused by climate change is being observed in all remote and
cosmopolitan parts of Pakistan. Most of the damage is irrevocable, but minimising
the effects of climate change must now be our top priority. Even with collective
international effort to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius, Pakistan’s
glaciers will still shrink by 36 per cent by the end of this century. The Hindu Kush
and Himalayan Assessment report warns that ice loss at this scale will have grave
consequences for billions living across South Asia — rising food insecurity,
irreparable losses to the economy and intensified natural disasters.

Current climate-induced troubles are a sign of worse to come.

From our fragile economy to the climate, the PTI government has to contend with
major challenges. Even after initiating the ‘billion-tree tsunami’, Pakistan still has
one of the fastest deforestation rates in the region — our forest cover has shrunk to
an abysmal 1.9pc. As per the UN’s standards, countries must have a forest cover of
at least 25pc of total land, while urban areas must have a forest cover of more than
10pc. Policymakers must understand that trees act as carbon eaters, and are
extremely pivotal for a sustainable ecosystem.

Even more worrying is that our current water woes are intensifying at alarming
rates. Imminent super floods will result in substantial destruction in every key
development sector. And while authorities are overwhelmed trying to control the
damage, there will be further turmoil to overshadow even this — a situation in
which the whole country will be hit by extreme drought. These grievous conditions
will coincide with scarcities of nutritional food and potable water, leading to
disease epidemics as well as large-scale migrations.

One of Pakistan’s most pivotal internal security challenges is its population bulge.
High rates of rural-urban convergence will only put more load on the already
stressed urban cities. Take Karachi, for instance, where 90pc of the water is unfit to
drink and its water shortage felt most acutely by the working classes. With
droughts predicted in the coming years and our population expected to become the
fourth largest in the world by 2030, do the authorities have a comprehensive plan?

So what is the way to mitigate this impending climate-induced fiasco? Many

environmentalists have stressed the importance of promoting renewable energy and
rejecting fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are non-renewable because they draw on finite
resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming either too expensive or too
environmentally damaging to retrieve. Conversely, several types of renewables —
such as wind and solar energy — are constantly replenished. Renewable energy is
not only cheap in the long run but also an inexhaustible form of energy.

Pakistan has ample potential for sustainable and clean energy for the future, and if
plans work out well, it can realistically be an energy-surplus country. The Solar
Energy Research Centre says that 70pc of our population lives in 50,000 villages
that are distant from the national grid. Connecting these remote villages to the
national grid would be very expensive, but giving each house a solar panel would
not only be cost-effective but also empower people economically and socially.

The rise in carbon emissions has been directly linked with global warming and the
impending melting of our glaciers. To curb the ever-growing increase in carbon
emissions, climate scientists have promoted the idea of carbon tax on big
corporations and industries. Carbon pricing would make fossil fuels expensive,
inexorably making renewable energy sources such as solar and wind ideal
alternatives. It is high time for parliament to initiate debates on the idea of carbon
pricing, because a carbon tax would be much easier to administer than any other
dormant climate change policy.

Climate change is a reality that will terrorise our present and future generations. In
the coming years, Pakistan must brace itself for some calamitous events in the
shape of super floods and intensified droughts, as accelerated global warming is
taking place right now. We must explore different avenues on how to minimise
Co2 in the air, paving the way for temperatures to go down. Our future relies on
robust climate-friendly policies, which must be properly implemented. Reversing
climate change is urgent and indispensable.

Water as a symbol
Jan-e-Alam KhakiJune 14, 2019
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The writer is an educationist with an interest in the study of religion and

philosophy.
WATER is critical for life on earth. This is a well-known fact. However what
is less known is that this scarce resource is being carelessly used globally.
Recognising these issues, the UN dedicates two international days to it: the
International Water Day (on March 22) to raise awareness about the issues of
water shortage, and Global Handwashing Day on Oct 15 to sensitise people
about the significance of washing hands with soap.

These problems are genuine and must be addressed at all levels; individual,
institutional, national and global.

With the significance of the above issues, testified by the shortage of it in Pakistan,
water is, however, also important for a deeper spiritual reason and that has to do
with its use in religion as a symbol of purity, and cleansing of the human soul.
Almost all religions use water as a symbol but we focus here on Islam due to space
constraints.

The Quran describes water as an expression of Allah’s mercy and power. It uses
water both in a physical and in a symbolic sense. In the first, the Quran alludes to
His mercy and majesty and how He creates and sustains things from water. It says,
“He made all living things from water. ...” (24:45). Verses of the Holy Book also
refer to water in a symbolic sense, such as, “...We sent down ‘Pure Water’ (ma’an
tahura) from the sky” so that He may give life to a ‘dead’ land, and ‘slake the
thirst’ of things Allah created.

Still more fascinating is another verse that says “…His [Allah’s] throne was upon
the water. ...” (11:7). Such verses very likely are symbolic, as the literal meaning
would be difficult to understand; they lend themselves to multiple interpretations,
the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this article. Prophetic traditions
advise us to use water judiciously, and Muslim ethics have elaborate instructions
about its sharing even among enemies.

Prophetic traditions advise us to use water judiciously.

In Muslim tradition, water is used in so many ways from birth to death and in
between. Selecting a few, for example, a newborn child is bathed, and before
burial, ghusl is given to the dead. Muslims must be ritually clean for prayers. As
well, there are many other forms of ritually using water before or after a particular
occasion, such as Eid prayers.

The most sacred water in Muslim tradition is seen as that of Aab-i-Zamzam, found
near the Ka’aba from which pilgrims bring a quantity back as tabarruk (blessings)
for their kith and kin; it is received with utmost respect. In his illuminating talk on
water, Dr Ali Asani, a Harvard University professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic
religion and cultures, highlights how the Quran, Hadith collections, Muslim
tradition, and subsequent scientific literature show that water is a key substance
and symbol in Muslim piety.
In Muslim histories, other than ritual or ceremonial use, water has been utilised in
art and architecture of the built environment. Architects have played with water in
notable public buildings such as mosques, gardens, and hospitals inspired by
Quranic descriptions of paradise wherein are mentioned, among other things, water
canals (anhar) flowing underneath. Often, water has been taken as a symbol for
rahma, barakah, and ilm.

Yet another dimension of water, ie the opposite side of its blessings, is its
destructive power, such as excessive water/ rain converting into floods, tsunamis,
poisonous rain and polluted water. The flood of the Prophet Noah is proverbial;
Pharaoh and his armies were drowned in the Nile. Many excessive rains cause
floods that destroy a lot of property and human life.

The theological argument traditionally advanced says that these (floods) are caused
by the sins of people. If that is the case, how have some nations overcome many of
these? Many nations have contained the damage through, for example,
meteorological science enabling weather forecasts, and by following up on
strategic plans to contain the damage. Though these issues are beyond the scope of
this article, it is, nonetheless worth reflecting upon them with the intention of
finding ways to convert tragedies into opportunities (such as storing excess
rainwater through reservoirs).

In sum, the significance of water is a sine qua non for human life, a substance for
the sustenance of life, and of ritual purity. All of us, collectively and individually,
should be alive to its value and use it judiciously. In addition, when we use it for
ritual purposes we need to reflect on the multiple symbolic meanings in each act of
the ritual to enrich our spiritual lives.

Finally, we also need to appreciate our traditions of art and architecture of

employing water in iconic buildings to sustain heritage meaningfully.

Apocalypse now
Aisha KhanJune 21, 2019
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The writer is chief executive of Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change.
THROUGHOUT human history, religions have long predicted the end of the
world. Global warming and the impacts of climate change also predict
scenarios of a doomsday with catastrophic results on all life forms. Disease,
hunger, strife, intense heat and ecological collapse are seen as contributing
factors leading to an existential threat that may result in an apocalyptic end of
Planet Earth.
With death and destruction staring humanity in the face, it becomes harder to
fathom why, while living in the ‘age of climate change’, we are not doing enough
to save the planet that sustains life. It is almost as if we have a death wish or seem
destined to go through the cycle of destruction and rebirth until we learn how to
live in harmony with nature.

There is enough knowledge and evidence available now to be fully cognisant of the
connection between man and nature and the devastating impact of the modern
human footprint on the environment. It is also equally clear that, when the damage
inflicted reaches a tipping point, nature will annihilate the intruder and gives itself
time to heal and restore its functions.

The irony is that it is not lack of knowledge and awareness that prevent
governments from taking urgent steps to drastically reduce emissions with
immediate effect, but the false sense of achieving development goals for improving
life quality indicators. These goals will become irrelevant when hit by heat,
drought, food shortages and water scarcity.

The goalpost has never been clearer or the threat more

imminent.
The irony is further compounded by the fact that countries that are responsible for
global warming are not doing enough and countries with low carbon footprints are
now joining the race to accelerate their development agendas to meet the needs of a
burgeoning population.

The special report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which
urges countries to increase pledges to reduce carbon emissions by five-fold from
the commitments made in the Nationally Determined Contributions, was only
noted and not welcomed at the Conference of Parties at the 2018 Climate Change
Conference in Poland. And despite much hype and publicity, the alarm over the
extinction of one million species has not triggered any major change in policy to
indicate that countries recognise the serious implications of species’ loss on life
systems.

Based on existing scientific research and projections of a global temperature

increase by three degrees Celsius by 2050, 55 per cent of the world’s population
across 35pc of the land area will experience more than 20 days of intense lethal
heat beyond the threshold of survivability. This will result in collapsed ecosystems
and the displacement of one billion people, according to the Melbourne-based
Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration.

The think tank also states that 75pc of the planet’s land surface has already been
altered and that the world faces a distinct probability of complete destruction by
2050. That gives us only 31 years. An existential threat only three decades away is
not such a long-term deterministic projection that its urgency should fail to register
with mankind.

The intriguing question, then, is why — despite the dire warnings and catastrophic
consequences — are world leaders refusing to declare a climate emergency and
take action on a war footing to reduce our risk of extinction? The goalpost has
never been clearer or the threat more imminent – and yet a business-as-usual
scenario continues, even as our survival is basically running on life support at this
point.

The evidence continues to mount — with dire statistics on fresh water pollutants,
antimicrobial resistant infections, air quality hazards and losses to businesses —
but the much-needed transformative change is not visible on the horizon. The pace
of change is slow and the speed of global warming is gaining exponential
momentum, threatening to wipe out humanity from the face of the earth.

So is it nature reclaiming its place, or an ordained event in the cycle of cosmic life?
Or is it quite simply the folly of man and his pursuit of a development agenda that
is short-lived in its success and doomed by its endless quest for more. The enemy
is approaching fast and will show no mercy to rich or poor, young or old.

Allowing countries to reach peak emissions is not an option, nor is ‘business as

usual’ an acceptable approach. The carbon concentration in the atmosphere is
already 415 parts per million, and the level today is higher than it has been at any
point in the past 800,000 years.

The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear for those who wish to hear and respond
to the challenge. The time is now, the need is upon us, and the end of the world is
getting closer. This is not alarmist but an urgent call for action to deal with an
apocalyptic emergency. We have only two options, either we put climate action at
the heart of every conversation — or we perish.

Too little broth

F.S. AijazuddinJune 27, 2019
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The writer is an author.

DAMS are not constructed on the whim of a Supreme Court chief justice. Had
that been the case, Mangla Dam would have been the brainchild of Supreme
Court Chief Justice A.R. Cornelius and Tarbela Dam that of Supreme Court
Chief Justice A.R. Rahman.
Both chief justices, had they been alive, would have been horrified at the suo motu
intervention of their successor in an area beyond the competence of their Supreme
Court. Both knew that every profession has its own expertise and specialty, and
should be trusted with it.

Most Pakistanis today are not aware of the steps taken by Gen Ayub Khan soon
after assuming power in 1958 to anticipate the country’s energy requirements. The
Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) was established with, as its
name implied, a Water Wing responsible for hydel power generation and a Power
Wing for thermal. Hydel projects by their very nature had a long gestation period
compared to thermal ones which could be brought on stream within two to three
years. Inevitably, the rabbit outran the tortoise. Since 1958, Wapda Hydel has
produced only 6,902 megawatts.

The restructuring of Wapda in 2007 and the emergence of independent power

producers reduced WAPDA Water to the status of a neglected handmaiden. One
chairman Wapda appointed by Gen Musharraf lamented that every time dams were
mentioned, his prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, would look out of the window. We
are paying for that insouciance.

One dam, however daintily packaged, is not the solution.

There is no Pakistani who drinks water who does not recognise that with depleting
water resources and a burgeoning population, we are sinking deeper into a pit of
our own mismanagement. One dam — however daintily packaged — is not the
solution, and everyone associated with the collection of funds for the Diamer-
Bhasha dam fund should have known that. If they didn’t, they have been
responsible for negligence. If they did, their actions (however well-meant) could
constitute misrepresentation. That is a harsh yet not unjustified assertion. Just step
back and look at the facts.

The Diamer-Bhasha dam had been initiated by Musharraf in 2006 as one of five
dams to be built across the country. The anticipated cost then was $12.6 billion. In
2017, an attempt was made to smuggle the Diamer-Bhasha dam under the umbrella
of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The Chinese agreed, provided we
conceded another dam of their choice. We backed off.

In July 2018, the then Supreme Court chief justice launched the Diamer-Bhasha
dam fund with such magnetic vigour that within no time, contributions (not all
them voluntary) poured in. Government servants and uniformed personnel in the
armed forces contributed a day’s salary; retirees dug into their savings; widows
gave their mites, and every branch of every bank throughout Pakistan advertised
the scheme to encourage the public to subscribe.

Not one person within the lumbering structure of Pakistan’s fiscal governance
thought of asking what was the legal status of the fund, who were its trustees, did
the fund have any rules, who was responsible for its administration, and who
would decide the beneficial application of the funds accumulated. Was there even a
provision for a refund should some contributor change his or her mind?

The Rs10.6bn collected would have been a one-way tunnel into oblivion had the
present Supreme Court chief justice not asked why the funds collected were lying
with commercial banks free of interest, and why the Supreme Court was involved
in dams at all?

Common sense asserted itself. One report (uncontradicted) disclosed that the
Rs10.6bn. was to be invested “in 10-year paper” issued by the National Bank of
Pakistan offering a rate of return said to be 12.6 per cent per annum. If so, the
funds would remain locked until maturity, in effect for all the 10 years it would
take to complete the dam.

The funds have in fact are being held by the National Bank of Pakistan jointly with
the State Bank in Government Treasury bills, on a three month roll-over basis.

Is Rs10.6bn sufficient earnest money to start a dam project that will require $16bn-
plus to complete? And what of the rumour that the Diamer-Bhasha funds may be
diverted towards yet another dam — the Mohmand dam? The public has a right to
know, but will never receive any answers because it does not know, in this
convoluted conundrum, to whom to address such questions.

One neighbour of ours is building a dam costing IRs35,000 crores with two
adjoining states sharing the cost and the benefits. Another built the Three Gorges
dam without the intervention of its Supreme Court.

The Diamer-Bhasha dam episode has taught us one thing: we Pakistanis suffer
from a serious culinary imbalance — there are too many spoons trying to stir too
little broth.

A strong start
Maha QasimSeptember 03, 2019
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The writer is an environmental and social impact consultant.

THE Ministry of Climate Change’s recent ban on the manufacturing, trading
and sale of plastic bags in the nation’s capital is a welcome Independence Day
gift. Enforcement of the ban in letter and spirit will go a long way towards
reducing plastic pollution in Islamabad.
Since polythene bags were first introduced in the 1960s, they have choked
waterways and wildlife, wrapped themselves around trees and accumulated in
gigantic garbage dumps in and around urban centres. Thousands of fish, birds,
seals and turtles die because they mistakenly ingest plastic bags or become
ensnared in nets, packing bands, and other items.

Single-use plastics can take several centuries to biodegrade completely. The

resulting ‘microplastics’ find their way into drinking water sources and can
become embedded in animal tissue. In humans, microplastics have been linked to
cancer, infertility, hormonal imbalances and birth defects.

The plastic ban essentially applies to all single-use polythene bags commonly used
for carrying groceries and other items. Shopkeepers are no longer allowed to
provide plastic bags to consumers to carry their purchases.

How can the government convince people to give up plastic?

Initially, I was sceptical about the effectiveness of the ban. Would the government
really follow through? I was pleasantly surprised to see the enforcement agencies
taking their job seriously. In popular shopping areas, nary a plastic bag was to be
seen. It took me a week to get accustomed to the ban as shopping bags have
become so seamlessly ingrained in our daily lives. This was not always the case.

Growing up in Karachi in the early 1990s, I often accompanied my grandmother

on her trips to buy groceries. She used to carry a large shopping basket made of
woven straw. It was strong, sustainably sourced and completely biodegradable. She
always used to bring along a grocery list and shop in bulk, buying huge tins of oil,
large packs of sugar, rice, flour and tea. Upon reaching home, she would transfer
the groceries into smaller containers.

By planning ahead, not only did she cut down on packaging, but also reduced the
number of trips she made to the store, saving on fuel and reducing her pollution
footprint.

Since the ban has been enforced, I am following many of the same practices and
being more deliberate about my shopping experience. I have placed cloth bags for
groceries, a net bag for fruits and vegetables, a shopping basket in the trunk of my
car along with a couple of containers for liquids such as yogurt and milk. Already,
I am observing a dramatic drop in my daily use of plastic bags.

Some citizens may, however, consider the sudden ban on plastic bags both absurd
and trivial. Why prohibit something that is convenient and offers high utility?

In order to effect behavioural change among the average consumer, the

government must invest in an effective media campaign to raise awareness about
the environmental and health hazards of plastic bags as part of the ‘Clean and
Green Pakistan’ initiative.

Direct communication about the availability of environment-friendly alternatives

such as cane baskets and reusable eco-friendly bags, and rewards for compliance
with the plastic ban, will go a long way towards large-scale community acceptance
and adoption of the scheme. An accompanying educational campaign across
schools and colleges explaining the reasons why plastics are bad for the
environment could also pave the way towards educating children and youth about
caring for the environment and inculcating a culture of cleanliness.

While it is encouraging that the government has focused on passing laws to ban
plastic litter, people also need to be educated about viable environmentally friendly
alternatives to ensure they are not doing more harm than good. For example,
styrofoam containers are just as bad for the environment as plastic, while paper
bags are derived from trees and are less likely to be reused. Reusable bags made
from jute, cotton or heavy-duty materials have longer utility, while shopping
baskets made of cane or wicker are completely biodegradable and are, therefore,
the most environmentally friendly option.

Globally, there is a growing movement to reduce plastic pollution. Many countries

have already prohibited plastic bags or imposed heavy fines to discourage the use
of plastics. Cutting down on shopping bags for daily purchases is a good first step
towards reducing our plastic footprint. Once the plastic ban gains momentum in
Islamabad, it could be gradually extended to other provinces and expanded to
include other single-use plastics such as water bottles, cutlery and straws.

Climate crisis
Farah SamuelUpdated September 18, 2019
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The writer is an environmentalist by profession and a Commonwealth Scholar

from Durham University, UK.
THERE is no doubt that climate change is affecting us. Even sceptics seem to
have accepted the fact that the earth is now 1°C warmer than it was in the
preindustrial times. Global organisations, such as the UN, are working to hold
the temperature increase at 2°C in the near future, while simultaneously
trying to halt the overall warming by 1.5°C by the year 2100.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the human-induced

global heating is at the rate of 0.2°C per decade — an alarming rate to say the least.
Read: Climate emergency

Most European countries have taken the lead in devising ways to reduce carbon
emissions and environmental pollution. These countries are combating the climate
crisis by challenging themselves through targets set until the year 2030. For
example, the UK has targeted to ban fuel-engine cars by 2040 and is investing in
the research and development of electrical vehicles as an alternative.

Pakistan became the first country in the world to have set up a full-fledged
National Ministry of Climate Change in 2012. This move was shortly followed by
another commendable effort: the issuance of the National Policy on Climate
Change. The policy identified key areas that needed attention and corrective
measures to reduce the impacts of climate change, but it failed to set achievable
targets.

The battle against climate change cannot be fought with ideas

alone.
Since 2012, the climate change ministry has been downgraded and restored by
successive governments, all of which have failed to develop the impetus needed to
develop a broad-based strategy to deal with the effects of climate change.

Even though most people, both in the government and among the public, would
agree that climate change is a dire issue that affects them in many ways, they are
not sure what they can do in their capacity to control it. Hence, they end up doing
nothing and simply continue with their environmentally harmful ways.

What is needed from the government is a multi-pronged strategy that will teach the
masses about the dangers of climate change. Though the poor may have already
had to endure the effects in the forms of displacement from flash floods created by
rapidly melting glaciers or prolonged droughts, they might not associate these
phenomena with climate change itself. It is imperative that awareness campaigns
include information regarding the effects of climate change and what actions can
be taken on a collective and individual level to reduce its impact.

The government can also benefit from entrepreneurial young minds. Many tech
start-ups pair up with civic rights and human rights organisations for social
projects. The government too can emulate this method by inviting young
entrepreneurs and activists to take part in hackathons or boot camps to generate
ideas, gather resources, and educate people about climate change and ways to slow
down or counter the process in Pakistan.

However, the battle against climate change cannot be fought with ideas and targets
alone. It also requires an attitudinal shift among the leadership and the public.
While there needs to be a consensus on a robust and updated policy on climate
change, it will eventually be the behaviour and habits of the people — across all
economic groups — that will play a critical role in fighting to reverse the impacts
of climate change. This responsibility towards the environment has been termed
‘eco-consciousness’ — behaviour or attitude showing concern for the environment.

This attitudinal shift can begin with schools. If the government makes climate
change, its impact and the importance of conservation a part of the science
curriculum, not only will it help reduce the burden of public awareness, it would
also produce eco-conscious young men and women.

Individual efforts or actions by members of the public can include reducing meat
consumption, which will help lower the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas
emission involved in the upkeep of cattle. Another step that can be taken is making
an effort to reduce plastic waste by cutting down on the use of plastic products, and
recycling waste whenever possible. Simply carrying one’s own washable and
reusable water bottle regularly can go a long way.

After a blanket ban on the use of plastic bags in the federal capital, the Punjab and
Sindh governments also reiterated their commitments to earlier unimplemented
bans they had put in place decades ago. Hopefully, this time, the ban will force the
public to switch to more environment-friendly alternatives.

Even miniscule individual changes in our lifestyles can bring about a much larger
collective impact. We as individuals should also try to learn more about our
environment and what we can do to conserve it. Together, we can contribute
towards reversing the harmful effects of climate change.

Sindh’s water woes

Meer M. PariharSeptember 30, 2019
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The writer has served as irrigation and power secretary in Sindh.

PERHAPS for the first time in the country’s history, a plan for the
construction of a multibillion-dollar barrage on the Indus River was
conceived and approved in less than a month.

A brainchild of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), the Sindh
Barrage is an attempt to resolve chronic water shortage in the coastal districts of
Sindh. However, the haste and secrecy with which the project has been approved
by the federal and provincial governments is baffling.
A short promotional video of the proposed Sindh Barrage — to be built at a cost of
Rs125 billion, around 45 kilometres away from the outfall where Indus River falls
into the Arabian Sea — is available on the Wapda website. In the video, the Wapda
chairman is seen standing on the construction site, with the Indus River behind
him. In the video, he cites controlling aggressive sea intrusion; irrigation of 75,000
acres of land in Thatta, Sujawal and Badin; and reviving the rich mangrove
wetlands as reasons for the construction of Sindh Barrage. He also alludes to a
potential plan of converting the 167 km-long river belt — between Kotri Barrage
and the proposed Sindh Barrage — into a water reservoir, which could become
“one of the longest lakes in Asia”.

To achieve these objectives, Wapda intends to construct a 12-metre-high barrage,

raise the bank of Indus River to 9m, while also widening the river belt up to six
kilometres. It also plans to dig two canals on the left and right side of the proposed
barrage. Construction is set to begin in December 2022 and is expected to end by
December 2024.

The plan to construct the Sindh Barrage has many flaws.

The plan may sound well in theory but it has many flaws. One of the primary
factors that decides the feasibility of Sindh Barrage is the availability of water
downstream Kotri. Wapda believes that this can be managed by regulating the
outflow from Kotri Barrage to be slightly more than 10 MAF (million acre feet) to
‘control’ sea intrusion. However, there are two caveats to this solution: first,
experts have been arguing for years that an inflow of only 10 MAF from Kotri to
the Indus delta is insufficient to push back the inflow of the Arabian Sea, and
prevent destruction of riverbeds and agricultural land. Second, according to
Wapda’s own figures, around 9,000 km of the coastal belt has already been
affected by sea intrusion, proving that the flow of water downstream Kotri has
remained inadequate over the years.

The Sindh government has conveniently foregone any risk analysis before
approving this project. But once construction begins, it will have to rehabilitate
hundreds of families who are displaced from areas close to the construction site.
The number of displaced families will be far greater if the plan for converting the
river belt downstream Kotri into a lake goes ahead, as the proposed lake will span
over at least four districts between Kotri and the Indus Delta — Thatta, Sujawal,
Tando Mohammad Khan and parts of Jamshoro.

Once the barrage is built, constant seepage of water from the reservoir will destroy
agricultural land in adjoining areas. On the other hand, permanent blockage of the
flowing river will give rise to other grave problems. For starters, it will put a
number of areas around and downstream Kotri Barrage, including Hyderabad, at
the persistent risk of flooding.
Second, formation of silt dunes and the presence of heavy sediment in the large
body of water will hamper the flow of the river that, if stopped, will find alternate
paths to spill. This might not only result in the Indus changing its course, but also
altering the geography and topography of areas downstream Kotri Barrage.

As for Wapda’s plans to construct two canals on either side of the Indus River to
irrigate 75,000 acres of agricultural land, if the authority had done proper research,
it would have realised that not a single acre of cultivable land in the coastal belt of
Sindh is out of the command of the existing canal network.

The death of the Indus delta and loss of agricultural land due to sea intrusion, and
the workability of a solution to this problem come down to the availability of river
water. Over the years, irregular allotment of agricultural land downstream Kotri,
and theft and pilferage from the existing canal network, have compounded the
chronic water shortage in Badin, Sujawal and Thatta, causing lasting damage to
these districts. Water resources in Pakistan require effective management, rather
than ambitious projects that ignore ground realities. Constructing a barrage on a
river with insufficient water will hardly serve any purpose, other than exacerbating
the process of sea intrusion and accelerating the death of Indus delta.

Time to act
Zofeen T. EbrahimSeptember 25, 2019
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The writer is a freelance journalist based in Karachi.

HELD soon after the biggest ever global climate strike, some 60-odd (from
just half of the 136 countries attending the UN General Assembly this year)
world leaders came together at the day-long Climate Action Summit to discuss
their countries’ plans to avert the crisis.

But before they got a chance, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, the best-known face of
the movement, made them uncomfortable as she had promised. “This is all wrong.
I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean,
yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you,” she thundered.

Just a day ahead of the summit, the World Meteorological Organisation published
new data showing 2014-19 as the warmest five-year period on record. It is enough
to send a shudder down anyone’s spine. The report warned that “the level of
ambition needs to be tripled” if temperatures are to remain in control.
Even the UN is getting impatient with the heads of states. For months, UN
Secretary General António Guterres had been telling them to come prepared not
with fancy speeches but plans that could be immediately implemented. Only
countries with new concrete commitments were allocated speaking spots, and
Pakistan’s prime minister was among those few who talked about his government’s
commitment to plant 10 billion trees in the next four years.

New data shows 2014-19 as the warmest five-year period on

record.
Standing on a makeshift stage outside Frere Hall in Karachi on Sept 20, 15-year-
old student Rimsha Zulfiqar Ali demanded clean air to be able to play outdoors.
Was she asking too much? Thunberg echoed Ali’s sentiment when she had told
world leaders, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty
words”.

Isn’t it shameful that things should come to such a point that seven-year-olds (like
Rabab Ali in 2016) must sue their country (Pakistan) for not providing them a
healthy environment to grow up in? Dar-e-Noor, 15, wished coal would remain
buried in the ground, and asked that if they were all going to die even before
reaching adulthood due to carbon emissions, what use would the energy produced
by dirty fuel be? Sawera Karim, 15, just does not understand why adults cannot
recognise the simple and cost-effective solutions in front of them: grow more trees!
Trees can capture the carbon being emitted, lower temperatures and clean the air,
she reminded us.

The world emits a whopping 42 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Scientists

warn if the pledges made in Paris in 2015 to limit the global average temperature
below two degrees Centigrade are not honoured, and if emissions are not slashed
by 2030 and brought to net-zero by 2050, a bleak future awaits.

Imagine what it means for Pakistan, which is not even a big emitter? It remains
among the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate-induced disasters. On top of
that, it has a runaway population, of which nearly 64 per cent is under 30. No
amount of food it grows and electricity it generates, and no number of schools and
hospitals it builds or industries it sets up will ever be enough if the population
continues to increase. The new generation will be resigned to a life of ill health,
poverty and disease.

But while the climate march drew many Pakistanis across the country to the
streets, many remain sceptical of the absent political will. It is bigger than just
banishing plastic shopping bags from our lives, they say. It means asking for
drastic reductions in emissions by transforming the energy sector. It also means a
considerable commitment of technology and finances, both of which are in short
supply.
It also means we could invest in renewable energy as we have these resources
aplenty, and stop making excuses: of not having the constant base load to run
industries, of wind and solar being unreliable, of not having the capacity. It also
means its leadership will have to double its effort to convince China to ‘green’
CPEC and lend its support towards renewables instead of coal.

It means seeing global warming not purely as an environmental issue but an ethical
one too. There will need to be adjustments made in the way the country grows its
crops and runs its industries in order to create clean jobs for millions to reduce
economic inequality. Quick action is required to implement changes and
opportunities as time is running out.

This also requires politics to disentangle itself from the clutches of corporate power
and think of the common man and protect him from exploitation, eviction and
displacement. It also means that the conversation has to be inclusive; that the
power holders listen to indigenous communities. They have been at the forefront of
protecting the earth, and are the most affected and least heard.

Today with an increasing level of public engagement and concern, more so

because the media has joined hands with the young activists who are losing
patience with governments’ inability to act, there is hope.