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Thursday March 28, 2024

Karachi and climate change

With over 1,300 dead in Karachi alone, this summer’s heatwave has seen everyone blaming everyone else and no one willing to shoulder the blame for the deaths. With K-Electric and the ban on public eating during Ramazan at the centre of the discussion, perhaps there is a need to factor

By our correspondents
July 01, 2015
With over 1,300 dead in Karachi alone, this summer’s heatwave has seen everyone blaming everyone else and no one willing to shoulder the blame for the deaths. With K-Electric and the ban on public eating during Ramazan at the centre of the discussion, perhaps there is a need to factor in another reality as well: climate change. On Monday the Ministry of Climate Change decided to constitute a committee to investigate what caused the deadly heatwave in the country and to come up with ways of coping with changing climate patterns. While the ministry has acted late, given that former president Asif Ali Zardari was naming climate change as the cause during the 2010 floods, it is good to see a government ministry at least consider a systematic explanation of the severe changes in weather throughout the country. The trouble is that its first meeting began with another warning: Karachi may be hit with a severe cold wave in the winter and preventive measures must be considered right away. With Karachi having already hit historic highs, it must now prepare for historic lows in its temperature.
Global climate change experts have already identified Pakistan as part of the zone most likely to face the brunt of the changing weather. With Pakistan facing extreme weather patterns for the last decade, what are needed are not token measures such as guaranteed provision of gas and electricity but a wholesale change in the approach to development. The current committee is unlikely to go the extra mile and make overall recommendations. While pointing to the need for Pakistan to develop a strategy for institutional capacity building to respond to such situations, Climate Change Minister Mushahidullah Khan resorted to the silly by blaming India’s coal power plants in Rajhastan for the heatwave. If Khan wants to be taken seriously, surely the climate change committees report will also recommend a ban on coal-fuelled power plants in Pakistan? The need for early warning systems throughout the country is essential, but these should have already been in place after the severe flooding of recent years. Moreover, other unusual weather phenomena, including the ‘tornado’ in Peshawar in April can certainly be mitigated by government action. The future is scary. Just read the explanation for the current heatwave. The Met Department argues that it was caused by low pressure in the Arabian Sea which stopped the sea breeze from reaching Karachi. If the same breeze doesn’t return to Karachi by the winter, then cold winds from Kandahar and Quetta are likely to cause an unusually cold winter. Karachi must prepare itself for that now.