KARACHI: No significant work has yet been done to protect Pakistan’s mega city Karachi from climate change implications including heatwaves, sea level rise, rain-induced floods and cyclones, according to an investigation report.
The sea level along Karachi coast has risen by 7.97 inches posing threat of city’s sinking by 2060 as indicted by a Senate standing committee while summer temperatures in the city has surged by 3 degrees centigrade causing severe heat waves, according to the investigation report made by senior journalist M Nawaz Khuhro under the joint collaboration of Pakistan Press Foundation and Media Matters for Democracy.
The climate change-induced monsoon rains also caused heavy flooding in the city in 2020, causing loss of human lives and property. Almost half of the city was inundated by rainwater. This proved that the city’s drainage system is poor and dilapidated as rainwater could not be drained out smoothly. Observing such a bad condition of the mega city of Pakistan, the federal government announced a Rs1100 billion infrastructure development package in Sept 2020 to tackle climate change, hazardous and other issues facing the city, but this amount could still not be used fully. As even low-intensity rainwater this year caused inundation in various areas of the city, making the lives miserable.
Only misinformation and disinformation was spread through big promises on mainstream and social media that has still proved to be hollow slogans, causing concern among the citizens, particularly the poor segment of the society. The authorities seem less interested in saving the citizens from the imminent dangers of heatwaves, sea level rise and cyclones.
The city receives heat waves from the northern and western parts of the country due to low tree cover while global warming also adds to the city temperature. A Pakistan Meteorological Department report says that Karachi’s mean summer temperatures since 1960 to date has risen upto three degrees centigrade.
Environment experts say it is mandatory to grow forests in all parts of the country to protect cities, including Karachi from heat waves which are harmful for human health. But Pakistan has mere 5.01 percent area under forest cover as per a recent report by the latest Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021, which is too low as compared to the UN standard that says every country should have at least 25 percent of its total land covered under forest tackle warming. Only misinformation and disinformation is being spread by the government that they have done good while fact is that there is no work ground to tackle climate change.
In an interview, Muhammad Saleem Shaikh, Deputy Director at Climate Change Ministry of Pakistan, says sea level in Karachi during the period 1906-2016 has risen at the rate of 2.02 millimeters per year while a total of 220.24 centimeters (7.97 inches) sea level rise in 110 years in the same period has been observed as per Pakistan Meteorological Department data.
He said that among the gravest concerns for the country are the heightened vulnerability of coastal areas due to sea-level rise, frequent incidents of urban flooding and heat waves, where over 70% of the lives and livelihoods of the people are at risks.
Mr Shaikh called for increasing tree cover in cities and towns through urban forestry initiatives, better urban planning, raising awareness about how people can protect themselves from extreme heat, establishing an early warning systems for timely forecasting of heatwaves and training medical staff to effectively and timely identify and treat people suffering from extreme heat as this all could significantly help boost cities’ resilience to heatwave incidents.
The present federal government is taking measures in collaboration with provincial and city governments. For stance, Miyawaki urban forest techniques are being adopted in heatwave-vulnerable cities of the country to regenerate forests with indigenous species for not only cooling down the city temperatures but also improving groundwater recharge levels.
Miyawaki technique, which has been adopted in around 38 countries, is being adopted in Pakistan as well to boost resilience of the cities by also achieving environmental preservation, mitigating air pollution. As far as the issue of sea-level rise is concerned, coastal areas of the country are facing mounting risk of increasing sea-level, consequent risks of cyclonic activities and massive displacement and inundation of the infrastructures.
To save Karachi’s coastal areas, Mr Saleem suggested identifying areas lying within the hazards-belt and build structures that work as safeguards against coastal cyclone and tsunami activities, design appropriate engineering structures that can withstand moisture corrosion and other extreme weather fatigue. He also called for increasing mangroves tree cover as buzzer zone against impacts of sea-level rise, cyclones.
Given the limited financial capacity and human capacity, the present government has already explored funding avenues available through UN’s Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, Work Bank channels. While some plans are being already implemented to fight impacts of heat waves and sea-level rise. It is hoped that these initiatives will largely help protect lives and livelihoods of the climate-vulnerable citizens, Mr Saleem added.
In an interview to this scribe, Saeedul Islam, a Project Manager, at WWF Pakistan in Karachi, said that Karachi’s present mangroves forest cover is 50,000 hectares. In the last 50 years, Karachi has lost 10,000 hectares of mangrove forest due to encroachments, commercialization and infrastructure development, which is loss to the environment of the city.
He said that there was need to further raise mangrove forest cover in Karachi to tackle warming and save the city from threat of cyclones as mangrove forests along Karachi coast can provide a protective shield against destructive cyclones and protect citizens. He said that there is also need to make massive tree plantations in interior and open areas of Karachi to remain safe from heatwaves.
He informed that in 2015, a severe heatwave killed 1200 people in Karachi, adding in future, such heatwaves may again come, so we will have to raise forests massively in Karachi and other parts of the country. However, after 2015 and during the last five years, no such heatwave has come yet and there was no death in this period, Mr Saeed confirmed. He said that Karachi could drown in future due to sea level rise if steps are not taking life. There is need to raise countrywide forests in this regard and reduce man-made temperatures.
