Pakistan is caught in a catastrophic flood crisis. In the riverine plains of Punjab and Sindh, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan northern valleys, monsoon rains and distended rivers have moved millions of people, drowned thousands of villages and killed hundreds of people.
The destruction itself is not very well distributed. The most severe impact of this climate disaster is being experienced by women, especially in rural and low-income societies.
The floods this year have caused havoc throughout the country. Landslides and flash floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa destroyed bridges and homes and cut off whole villages. Over 4.4 million individuals were impacted, and 2.4 million have been evacuated in Punjab as the Sutlej and Chenab rivers filled with water and flooded through and overwhelmed well over 8,400 villages. Mass displacement has also been experienced in Sindh, where over 150,000 citizens have been displaced in the low-lying Katcha regions along the Indus. Over 900 people have also died since June and millions more are at risk of disease, starvation and homelessness.
To women, floods have increased the day-to-day struggles. They have traditionally been the ones who collect water, bring food and take care of the families and their work has been made more difficult by the fact that the water sources are polluted and food supplies are decreasing. The displacement causes additional pressure: women risk of being harassed, deprived of privacy and not having a good facility in congested relief camps.
Health issues are also in dire need after the crisis. According to the UN Population Fund, of the populations affected by floods, 1.6 million women of reproductive age are found with almost 130,000 pregnant women among them and most in need of urgent medical care. Access to safe deliveries and maternal healthcare has become extremely limited due to the washing away of the clinics and the disruption of the supply routes.
Women who rely on small-scale farming and livestock to get family income have had their livelihood destroyed. Weeks of drowning and destroying crops and animals have occurred on fertile lands in Punjab and Sindh. For families already facing inflation, the lack of livelihoods exacerbates long-term vulnerability.
The National Climate Change Policy of Pakistan recognises the vulnerability of women, yet the practicality is poor. Gender-specific needs are not always taken into account in disaster management plans, and thus women are not well represented in making decisions and also not well served in case of an emergency.
However, women have also resisted in Pakistan. Sindh and Balochistan have women-led organisations that are leading the fight to conserve water and promote environmentally friendly farming. Female cooperatives in Gilgit-Baltistan are trying renewable energy and sustainable lives. Such efforts show that women are not only victims of climate change but also can be the leaders of change through adaptation.
The policies to address the magnitude of the climate crisis in Pakistan should not be based on women as passive receivers of aid but rather on women as important parts of resilience. This means creating safe spaces and health services that are conducive to women in disaster-affected regions, ensuring their participation in local climate and disaster councils and enhancing adaptive capacity by increasing women’s access to land rights, credit and education.
It also requires investing in and multiplying community-based and women-led climate efforts, recognising their central role in building sustainable and inclusive responses to climate challenges.
Climate change is not a gender issue and the floods in Pakistan have brought this to a painful reality. To enable the country to withstand the disaster in the future, the needs of women should be at the centre of the climate policy. Strong women are no longer a question of equity but the key to the survival and sustainability of communities in Pakistan.
The writer is a PhD scholar at the University of Karachi.