Pakistan is tightly gripped by climate change, despite contributing less than 1% to the greenhouse gas emissions. As the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, Pakistan faces recurring extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves, and droughts. This not only exacerbates the environmental condition but also worsens the socio-economic conditions. Especially considering that Pakistan is a developing nation with 37.2% of its population is living in poverty. Hence, Pakistan is left with a limited power to deal with the hassle.
Let’s dive deeper into understanding the true horrors of the environmental issues. In the 2022 floods, approximately 33 million people were affected. Later, in 2024, flash floods destroying the livelihood of thousands of people. Unfortunately, these events not only cause socio-economic difficulties, their impacts run far deeper. From psychological issues to race for resources to a national emergency, all the aspects must be taken into account.
As a developing country submerged in huge debt, the environmental crisis adds more to the burden. Over the past decade, the most destructive climate change events experienced in Pakistan are floods and heatwaves. Every event leads to large casualties, infrastructure damage, rehabilitation costs, medical costs, business losses and many other negative impacts. These damages span from personal lives to a national level. The floods of 2022 triggered an economic, health, and food emergency. The lack of preparedness and policy work drove people into a very complex situation. Millions of people had lost their jobs and businesses, leading to a significant drop in country’s overall GDP. According to the World Bank, the total economic losses were somewhere near $15.2 billion. Such difficult times call for movement, some people are internally displaced, while others are forced to leave the country. This reflects Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate change, where limited resources makes environmental hazards another battle. Unfortunately, these impacts are not only limited to the economic sphere, but they also take a deep toll on public health as well. With its damaging effects on economy, it also shows in public health crises.
Another pressing consequence of climate change is its impact on health. Heatwaves affect a huge portion of population, especially in major cities like Karachi. Issues like food insecurity, malnutrition, and water insecurity are deeply linked with climate change as such crisis wash away the agriculture and change the nature of land. According to a UN Report, at least 44% children of Pakistan suffer due to malnutrition. Moreover, other events like flooding increases the possibility for spreading of diseases like malaria, dengue, viruses and other waterborne diseases.
Apart from this, pollution also plays its part and causes health issues like breathing problems, heightened allergies, and other heart and lung diseases. Overall, quality of air, water, food, and life keeps on decreasing as climate change tightens its grip on Pakistan.
The psychological impacts of climate change are one of the most overlooked aspects of the climate crisis. “Climate anxiety” develops in people as they stay in constant distress of disastrous effects of climatic events. As the physical health challenges have already been discussed, let’s also comprehensively study some psychological difficulties. People, who have gone through destructive events like floods or significant loss due to climate change, often end up grappled in mental health struggles like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or even depression. As there is less availability of psychologists in rural areas of Pakistan, these issues are left unaddressed, causing the victims to spend a comparatively harder life. Having lost their home, businesses, personal belongings, and even their loved ones, people end up with little to no hope. In some cases, climate change threatens cultural practices and loss of income, deepening the psychological toll.
Given the wide range of negative impacts climate change has on people; it can be concluded that there is a potential risk of a national emergency. Outbreak of diseases in the affected areas might lead to uncontrolled spread, a rapid increase in death toll, and decline in health indicators of the state. This reflects a medical emergency, potentially straining healthcare professionals and resources. Furthermore, recovering from the losses, whether infrastructural or economical, can put the state in a troubled situation. Especially for developing states like Pakistan, an addition to already-existing economic burden makes a huge difference to living standards of people and inflation rates. This economical challenge hides deeper impacts that would hurt the people, their businesses, and in worse scenarios it might lead to unrest in the country. A politically unstable country remains bounded due to internal difficulties, it becomes more challenging to rise internationally.
On the same note, Pakistan falls back on Risk Management Frameworks, the system is more focused on reacting to the disaster instead of taking precautionary measures. Even though the National Climate Change Policy is available on paper, there is a noticeable lack of implementation strategies.
If environmental issues continue to go unaddressed, the situation will only worsen. Adaptability and mitigation strategies are required at both the state and personal levels, to deal with the current threats. All the aforementioned challenges could overwhelm the country’s already limited capacity to respond. The implementation laybacks by the government worsens the situation, the gap between policies and their execution deepens while leaving the country vulnerable.
In order to protect the country and the people from a worsening situation, it is important to take immediate mitigation steps. Urgent action at both state and the personal levels would lead to a better and sustainable future. Individually, it is important for people to adopt sustainable practices, be mindful of their carbon footprint and work for environment conservation. Similarly, at the state level, it is crucial to enforce climate policies and establish better disaster risk management frameworks. It is important to make sure a holistic approach is utilised, so no issue goes unseen. Currently, the frequency of climate-related disasters is severe and so coordinated and immediate efforts are required. Moreover, future planning in all themes is required to guarantee a sustainable Pakistan.
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