People across Pakistan are now experiencing unpredictable rainfall, increased temperatures and changes in weather conditions. In 2012, the BBC’s Climate Asia Report on Pakistan found that “People need information about future impacts and on what they can do right now”. The media, they pointed out, could play a positive role by highlighting the serious impacts of climate change and focusing on solutions so that people know what to do to adapt their lifestyles to the changing climate. The survey found that communities who were informed about their environment were best able to cope with shortages and extreme weather.

Rafia Saleem, a young writer from Multan who has been focusing on raising awareness about environmental degradation and protection since 1999, has made it her mission to inform communities about the perils of climate change and how they can adapt and survive. Having received several awards for her environmental efforts, she recently began an environmental Urdu language radio show Sabz Khawab, initially funded by WWF-Pakistan’s small grants programme and now supported by the Pakistan-US Alumni Network.

Aired on FM 103 Multan on a weekly basis, the show reaches out to thousands of listeners in Southern Punjab and focuses on environmental protection and awareness. It promotes green heroes and addresses problems like changing climate, contaminated water, dwindling wildlife, noise pollution and fading forests in Pakistan. “As most of my writings were in English, I felt the need to do something through which a common man can better understand the phenomenon of climate change”,she says of her innovative radio show series which began earlier this year. That’s how the idea of Sabz Khawab was born,”

Using the power of radio to take the climate change movement to rural audiences

Around 15 minutes long, the radio show is entertaining and informative with catchy tunes. It also uses “eco dramas”, which are dialogues , for example, between a grandfather and his young grand-daughter who is horrified at animals being kept in zoos instead of roaming free in jungles and a father and his children who go for a picnic to a forested area and are aghast at seeing “useless” trees being cut down mercilessly for development. This is infotainment at its best and the show is slickly produced — Rafia not only introduces the theme of each show herself in her melodious voice but also plays interviews recorded in the field. For the segment on Lal Sunahra National Park in Bahawalpur, for example, she interviews park and wildlife officials and their voices can be heard describing the various animals in the park and steps taken for their welfare.

This is all the more remarkable given that Rafia actually has another day job — she is not a professional radio or TV host but a Chartered Accountant who works in microfinance at the National Rural Support Programme office in Multan. She developed an interest in the environment while still a student, even receiving a “Young Eco Hero Award” in this connection from an American NGO called Action for Nature in 2003. “I was always inspired by nature as a kid. As I grew up, I realised that my surroundings were not as clean and green as I imagined them to be in my childhood. From the day this realisation dawned upon me, I took up the pen and started advocating on environmental issues through my writings and activism. I spoke to kids and adults on pollution, wrote an eco booklet for kids, fought a public interest court case on garbage disposal and authored research papers”, she explains of her interest in this field.

One of the more interesting aspects of her radio show is the listeners feedback segment at the end of each show where she reads out messages from her audience in Southern Punjab. It is evident that the listeners are not only being informed about environmental protection and what they can do as individuals to safeguard trees and wildlife in their areas, but that they are enjoying her show immensely. “The programme has been received very well by the listeners. I now intend to take it to other provinces of Pakistan or on a national level depending upon funds” she says. The show goes on air Fridays/Tuesdays from 5.45 to 6pm and one can even listen to it online. As the show is in Urdu it reaches a much wider audience on radio which is heard in poorer rural households who can’t afford a TV or it is switched off due to constant load shedding.

Instead of innumerable mindless talk shows that focus on politics and governance in this country, we need more initiatives like Rafia’s that provide invaluable information to a wide audience on important topics like the environment and climate change. After all, Pakistan’s unique geography from glacier -covered mountains in the north to the Indus river delta of the coast, makes it stand out not only as an extremely diverse country but also one that is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

For several years now the country has been facing the consequences of a changing climate: erratic monsoon rains, rising temperatures leading to reduced agricultural output, glacial floods in high mountains, seawater intrusion into Indus Delta and extreme weather events like major floods and droughts.

Back in 2012 the BBC’s team found that people in Pakistan have much lower confidence in their government to act and people were taking action on their own to respond to climate change (67 per cent of those surveyed in Pakistan). Clearly those who are adapting need information that is reliable and practical and radio shows like Sabz Khawab can deliver this information to them.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 18th, 2016