PROPER urban drainage was long considered an infrastructural issue that was supposed to be dealt with by the civic administration. However, it gradually became such a charged topic that ordinary people began using it to benchmark the competency of various political parties vying for legislative power as well. The PML-N understood this and therefore sought to maintain Lahore, in particular, as a showcase of its administrative capabilities. On the other hand, the PPP, which runs Karachi, learnt the lesson the hard way. It experienced a significant loss of public approval in the city over the gradual dilapidation of its urban infrastructure before finally realising that it needed to be much more proactive, particularly in its response to rain-related disasters. These days, from Karachi to Khyber, all parties make a public show of how quickly they are able to mobilise their response to rain-related emergencies and how slowly or poorly their rivals react. However, politicising this issue will do more harm than good.

Climate change has emerged in recent years as a ‘great equaliser’. It spares no city nor favours another. Even generally well-maintained metropolises, such as Lahore and Islamabad, are now experiencing serious rain-related crises with unprecedented frequency. Therefore, instead of seeing the monsoon season as an opportunity to score points against each other, our political parties should sit down together and brainstorm solutions to the new challenges created by climate change. Reasoned debate and knowledge sharing could help urban administrators across the country arrive at localised solutions to climate-related challenges. It is strange that, for a country that has been so active on global forums concerned with responses to the climate crisis, internal discourse on climate adaptation in Pakistan has barely begun to scratch the surface. If we expect the world to help us cope with natural disasters, we must demonstrate that we are equally serious about helping ourselves in this regard.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024