KARACHI: Social activists, environmentalists, journalists and the academia looked at the economic repercussions of the recent floods during a climate conference held at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) on Monday.

The event — Pakistan’s climate catastrophe: a call for economic action — was organised by the Economic Society Egalitarians in collaboration with Engro Foundation.

Introducing the topic of discussion, Professor Dr Shahida Wizarat, Dean College of Economics and Social Development at IoBM, said that the United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres visited Pakistan just after the floods and he called the disastrous rain here ‘Monsoon on steroids’.

“Hundreds of people lost their lives hundreds of thousands were displaced and the situation is still the same,” she said.

“Pakistan received 187 per cent more rain than usual this year and hence the devastation. Pakistan is least responsible for global warming but has been severely affected by it. Our estimated losses in September were around $30 billion. The UN Secretary General was so sympathetic. He suggested debt development swaps so what is our government doing about it,” she asked.

Moot questions NDMA performance during floods; concern raised over country’s depleting mangrove forests

Journalist and environment activist Afia Salam pointed out that the UN Secretary General may suggest development swaps but he is not the one to give the money or offer the swaps. Others are.

“Here, our damage assessment numbers and what we need don’t even match. There is also more talk of loss and damage and nothing about reducing emissions as countries in the Conference of the Parties or COP have developed economically at our cost. So just words of sympathy is not enough,” she said, while asking what the ministry of climate change and the institutions whose responsibility it is to help the victims were.

She also pointed out that the rains which came in July were actually predicted in April by the Met department. “The Met Office did its work but what did we do? We have a National Disaster Management Authority or NDMA. The word ‘Management’ in there meant disaster risk reduction instead of throwing biryani from helicopters,” she said.

Journalist and TV host Zarrar Khuhro said that everyone has heard of NDMA and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). “But have you heard of DDMA, which is District Disaster Management Authority,” he asked.

“Here we have the director operations at NDMA telling you that he doesn’t know the damages at the district levels because he is not getting any data from DDMA. He doesn’t know what medicines are needed, whether there is any need for tents, etc, because practically, the district government does not exist. It’s just there on paper,” he said.

“The documents tell you one thing and the real ground reality is something else. And it’s always a management issue,” he said.

Dr Shahid Amjad, the head of Department of Environment and Management at IoBM, spoke about Pakistan once being fifth in the world for its mangrove forests. “We are eighth now because we lost those mangroves,” he regretted.

He also said that he along with a team visited Keti Bandar where the community women are collecting mangrove seeds for which they are getting paid, too. “So they are making an income,” he said, adding that it is a positive move and more should be done for facilitating the economy of such areas.

Favad Soomro, head of Engro Corp, said that climate change is a reality that we have to deal with. “And we are on the receiving end of climate change, unfortunately,” he said.

“We can do a lot. We have piloted many things. We can help in crop insurance and help increase resilience of our farmers to minimise the impact of events. We also need a climate resilient infrastructure and so many more things. Yes, data is an issue there. But we have our own data,” he said.

“We suffered heatwave, then floods. So what to prepare for? Macro level needed for crop insurance. Affordability is also an issue. We have experimented with rice crop without water. No need to plough land to plant wheat. Macro is big issue and micro we can do,” he said.

Assistant Professor Dr Falak Shad Memon also spoke.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022