The News International published an op-ed by Mohsin Hafeez, Wajid Rana, and Deputy division director Claudia Ringler discuss the climate change disaster in Pakistan. Following the extreme heatwave of May – the city of Jacobabad hit 51 degrees C on May 14 – Pakistanis are now experiencing the most extreme flooding of their lifetime. These were two systemic, interlinked extreme events, with the hotter air earlier in the year holding more moisture and melting glaciers foreshadowing the floods. Government agencies were ill-prepared, and, as always, the poor are suffering the most; the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh were hit the hardest, and poorer and rural populations lost not only their homes but also their income and livelihoods. If in May crops and livestock were burning in the heat, by August they were flooded. To address this and future extreme events linked to climate change, systemic water-energy-food-environment plans and programs are urgently needed. The authors offer detailed information on three schemes that could assist including--providing immediate relief to the most vulnerable; reducing the long-term adverse effects of the crisis through sustained relief, and implementing integrated forecasting systems and associated disaster action. The authors write that this is not the last summer of climate extremes in Pakistan, but there are clear opportunities to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change on the poorest rural population of Pakistan. These should be seized now.
