Who should be responsible for rise in temperature, flooding in Pakistan?

Naseem Sheikh

KARACHI: This year will be world’s tenth warmest on record since 1850, and the highest ever in a year which experienced a La Niña event, a meteorological phenomenon which is supposed to have a cooling influence on Earth’s atmosphere, a United Nations agency reported this week.

The report was released in The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa, (from November 28–December 9, 2011), where thousands of representatives from governments, international organizations and civil society are meeting to advance ways to cut global carbon emissions and pollution.

Geography compounded with high levels of poverty and population density has rendered Asia and the Pacific countries especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change with increase in temperature. Climate change is existent and the region faces scary climate-related improvement challenges. Asia and the Pacific, with over 50% of the world’s population and two-thirds of its poor, is deeply vulnerable to climate change-linked events such as rising sea levels by melting of ice and glaciers and increasingly severe droughts and floods by disturbance of water cycle due to severe increase in heat.

The effects of global warming are iniquitous; suffering mainly poor and developed countries unfortunately due to their geographical presence. Flooding was main culprit for all major drastic changes (as no reason here to explain due to increase in temperature) Asia and the Pacific had seen more than 30 million people displaced by environmental disasters in 2010, according to data from the ADB (Asian Development Bank) and Reuters. The region is home to more than 4 billion people.

More than five million Pakistanis are now estimated to require humanitarian assistance as a result of this year’s floods, are mainly in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, with 25 per cent of them women and 50 per cent children United Nations aid agencies reported on 25Nov, 2011. Almost 800,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged in the floods, which began in August, and nearly 750,000 people were still displaced at the end of October.

After such drastic flood almost 5.3 million – number of people affected by this year's rains, which began falling in late August.

370,000 people estimated to still be living in camps in Sindh.
200,000 – People made homeless.
1.7 million acres of arable land affected.
300 – Estimated kill in three months

In Pakistan in mid 2010, at least 11 million people were forced to leave their home areas, and had their homes and livelihoods destroyed by the flood waters.

The Pakistani government was widely criticized last year for its stuttering response to the worst floods in the country’s history, which affected at least 18 million people and inundated one-fifth of Pakistan — an area the size of the United Kingdom.

Sea-level rise represents an existential threat in future to many small island nations also. Being land scarce and low lying, they are exposed to the risks of intensifying weather events such as damage caused by inundation, extreme winds, and flooding from storms. The United Nations estimates that by 2020, 13 of the world’s 25 mega cities, most of them situated in low-lying coastal areas, will be in Asia and the Pacific. In many mega cities, more than half the population is crowded into densely populated slums that are at risk from flooding and where settlements lack basic protective infrastructure.

As climate-related risks intensify, there will be a need to respond proactively to build resilience through preclusion and attentiveness rather than through relief and response. Cities can minimize the risk of destructive floods, by improving drainage and sanitation systems and imposing a solid waste management scheme that promotes efficient garbage collection and reduces the use of plastics. Governments need to develop integrated urban plans that address urgent issues on water supply, flooding, transportation, and solid waste, a climate change.

But what do governments do in a proactive way to inform their citizens about climate change. Under Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - which was agreed in 1992 and entered into force in 1994 - nearly 200 governments agreed to promote actions to develop and implement “educational and public awareness programs on climate change and its effects”.

Reference of article 6:

http://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/background/items/1366.php

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Copyright Business Recorder, 2011