Monster floods incur $10b damages in Pakistan: Sherry

APP

ISLAMABAD: The monster monsoon floods had washed away 45 per cent of the country’s cropland and incurred cumulative damages of $10 billion.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman while addressing a seminar in Islamabad on Thursday.  The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Climate Change and UNICEF.

The young leaders were briefed on the vulnerability of the country due to climate change and cataclysmic climatic problems faced by the country.

The climate change minister said, “We are standing at the precipice of a very fragile time linked to climate change as there is no match to the natural catastrophe that covered 70 per cent of the country under water which is equal to the size of the United Kingdom.”

Senator Sherry said the Sindh province was the food basket of the country and 45 per cent of area was washed away due to heavy flooding which would bring economic shocks in the future.

The Pakistani youth was integrated and pertinent to change their future and it was time to shake their conscience, she informed.

“My generation had carbon-intensive lifestyle and you will have to define at one level what we have to change in our life,” the minister said. She underlined that the country was facing the 9th monsoon spell and crossed the devastation of 2010 floods having no precedent to it.

“No such environmental and humanitarian crisis has occurred before and we should consider this as the decade’s major climate event. 70 per cent of Pakistan is underwater because of a climate catastrophe. Make no mistake, it’s all man-made disaster and it will not go back automatically, “the climate minister warned.

She had briefed the federal cabinet prior to floods that climate change represents a national security threat as it impacted 9.1 per cent of its GDP, she added.

As many as 33 million people are affected due to floods, adding, “We will be late in our response because no one expected a high monsoon spell which was predicted to be high.”

The climate minister mentioned that there was a need to create new tools and utilise resources, military, civil disaster management machinery and others for a proactive and coordinated response.

“It’s a humanitarian disaster that’s why the UN came with a flash appeal. However, the UN secretary general will visit Pakistan soon. This is the largest hydromet disaster in the history of Pakistan,” she maintained.

She also lauded the UN secretary general statement underlining that climate disasters could not stop in Pakistan, adding “Pakistan is on the ground zero of climate change and we are the frontline.”

UNICEF Country Representative Abdullah A Fadil said climate change impacts have drastic outcomes whereas the youth would have to hold its government accountable for poor climate resilience and adaptation as everyone had to play its part for the conservation and protection of the environment.

Fadil also appreciated the KP government for effectively managing the impending risk of flood in Nowshera district which was mitigated through developing protective embankments which was a good example of climate adaptation.