Rich nations owe reparations to countries facing climate disaster, says Pakistan minister
Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter and Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad -
THE GUARDIAN, SEPT 3,2022
Rich polluting countries which are predominantly to blame for the “dystopian” climate breakdown have broken their promises to reduce emissions and help developing countries adapt to global heating, according to Pakistan’s minister for climate change, who said reparations were long overdue.
Photograph: Reuters© Provided by The Guardian
More than 1,200 people are dead and a third of Pakistan is under floodwater after weeks of unprecedented monsoon rains battered the country – which only weeks earlier had been suffering serious drought.
Sherry Rehman. Photograph: Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty Images
In an interview with the Guardian, the climate minister, Sherry Rehman, said global emission targets and reparations must be reconsidered, given the accelerated and relentless nature of climate catastrophes hitting countries such as Pakistan.
“Global warming is the existential crisis facing the world and Pakistan is ground zero – yet we have contributed less than 1% to [greenhouse gas] emissions. We all know that the pledges made in multilateral forums have not been fulfilled,” said Rehman, 61, a former journalist, senator and diplomat who previously served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US.
“There is so much loss and damage with so little reparations to countries that contributed so little to the world’s carbon footprint that obviously the bargain made between the global north and global south is not working. We need to be pressing very hard for a reset of the targets because climate change is accelerating much faster than predicted, on the ground, that is very clear.”
Residents wade through flood waters near their homes following heavy monsoon rains. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian
The extent of Pakistan’s flood damage is unprecedented.
An area the size of the state of Colorado is inundated, with more than 200 bridges and 3,000 miles of telecom lines collapsed or damaged, Rehman said. At least 33 million people have been affected – a figure expected to rise after authorities complete damage surveys next week. In the Sindh district, which produces half the country’s food, 90% of crops are ruined. Entire villages and agricultural fields have been swept away.
Related: Urgent aid appeal launched as satellite images show a third of Pakistan underwater
The main culprit is unprecedented relentless torrential rain, with some towns receiving 500 to 700% more rainfall than normal in August. Large swaths of land are still under eight to 10 ft of water, making it extremely difficult to drop rations or put up tents. The navy is carrying out rescue missions in normally arid areas where boats have never been seen, according to Rehman.
“The whole area looks like an ocean with no horizon – nothing like this has been seen before,” said Rehman. “I wince when I hear people say these are natural disasters. This is very much the age of the anthropocene: these are man-made disasters.”
Many have fled inundated rural areas looking for food and shelter in nearby cities which are ill-equipped to cope, and it is unclear when – or if – they will ever be able to go back. The total number of people remain stranded in remote areas, waiting to be rescued, remains unknown.
The water will take months to drain, and – despite a brief pause in the downfall – more heavy rain is forecast for mid-September.
You can’t walk away from the reality that big corporations that have net profits bigger than the GDP of many countries need to take responsibility Sherry Rehman
Rehman, who was named minister for climate change in April amid a political and economic crisis that saw the ousting of the prime minister, Imran Khan, has said the government was doing everything possible but rescue and aid missions had been hampered by ongoing rain and the sheer scale of need.
While sympathetic to the global economic challenges caused by the Covid pandemic and war in Ukraine, she was adamant that “richer countries must do more”.
“Historic injustices have to be heard and there must be some level of climate equation so that the brunt of the irresponsible carbon consumption is not being laid on nations near the equator which are obviously unable to create resilient infrastructure on their own,” she said.
A youth crosses a flooded field carrying tree branches in Mirpur Khas in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP
Related: ‘Just a pile of mud’: Pakistani floods force family to rebuild home again
There are also growing calls for fossil fuel companies – making record profits as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine – to pay for the damage caused by global heating to developing countries.
Rehman said: “Big polluters often try to greenwash their emissions but you can’t walk away from the reality that big corporations that have net profits bigger than the GDP of many countries need to take responsibility.”
The annual UN climate talks take place in Egypt in November, where the group of 77 developing countries plus China, which Pakistan currently chairs, will be pushing hard for the polluters to pay up after a year of devastating drought, floods, heatwaves and forest fires.
Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to global heating, and the current catastrophic floods come after four consecutive heatwaves with temperatures topping 53C earlier this year.
It has more than 7,200 glaciers – more than anywhere outside the poles – which are melting much faster and earlier due to rising temperatures, adding water to rivers already swollen by rainfall.
A view of makeshift tents of flood victims taking refuge on a higher ground. Photograph: Reuters
“We’re going to be very clear and unequivocal about what we see as our needs and due, as well as where we see the series of larger global targets going. But loss and danger to the south which is already in the throes of an accelerated climate dystopia will have to be part of the bargain driven at Cop27,” she said.
Richer polluting countries have so far been slow to cough up pledged money to help developing countries adapt to climate shocks, and even more reluctant to engage in meaningful negotiations about financing loss and damage suffered by poorer nations like Pakistan which have contributed negligibly to greenhouse gas emissions.
Discussion about reparations has been mostly blocked, leaving vulnerable countries like Pakistan “facing the brunt of other people’s reckless carbon consumption”.
“As you can see, global warming hasn’t gone down – quite the opposite. And there is only so much adaptation we can do. The melting of glaciers, the floods, drought, forest fires, none will stop without very serious pledges being honoured,” said Rahman.
“We are on the frontline and intend to keep loss and damage and adapting to climate catastrophes at the core of our arguments and negotiations. There will be no moving away from that.”
Pakistan’s hope as lake fills: Flood villages to save a cityLocal residents cross a portion of road destroyed by floodwaters in Kalam Valley in northern Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. Officials warned Sunday that more flooding was expected as Lake Manchar in southern Pakistan swelled from monsoon rains that began in mid-June and have killed nearly 1,300 people. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani engineers cut into an embankment for one of the country’s largest lakes on Sunday to release rising waters in the hopes of saving a nearby city and town from flooding as officials predicted more monsoon rain was on the way for the country’s already devastated south.
While officials hope the cut in the sides of Lake Manchar will protect about half a million people who live in the city of Sehwan and the town of Bhan Saeedabad, villages that are home to 150,000 people are in the path of the diverted waters. The hometown of Sindh province’s chief minister was among the affected villages, whose residents were warned to evacuate ahead of time, according to the provincial information minister.
More than 1,300 people have died and millions have lost their homes in flooding caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan this year that many experts have blamed on climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. He plans to visit flood-hit areas on Sept. 9.
Several countries have flown in supplies, but the Pakistani government has pleaded for even more help, faced with the enormous task of feeding and housing those affected, as well as protecting them from waterborne diseases.
While floods have touched much of the country, Sindh province has been the most affected.
With meteorologists predicting more rain in the coming days, including around Sindh’s Lake Manchar, and its level already rising, authorities ordered that water be released from it. Sindh’s chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, made the call even though his own village could be flooded, said Sharjil Inam Memon, the provincial information minister. The government helped residents of the villages in the waters’ path to evacuate ahead of time, said Memon.
The hope was that the water, once released, would flow into the nearby Indus River, but the lake’s level continued to rise even after the cut was made, according to Fariduddin Mustafa, administrator for Jamshoro district, where the affected villages are located. Authorities have also warned residents of neighboring Dadu district that they might be at risk of more flooding in coming days.
While the release valve was created in one area, army engineers worked elsewhere to reinforce the banks of Lake Manchar, which is the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan and one of the largest in Asia.
In its latest report, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority put the death toll since mid-June — when monsoon rains started weeks earlier than is typical — at 1,314, as more fatalities were reported from flood-affected areas of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces. The report said 458 children were among the dead.
Rescue operations continued Sunday with troops and volunteers using helicopters and boats to get people stranded out of flooded areas to relief camps, the authority said. Tens of thousands of people are already living in such camps, and thousands more have taken shelter on roadsides on higher ground.
Hira Ikram, a physician at a camp established by Britain’s Islamic Mission in Sukkur charity, said many people had scabies, gastrointestinal infections and fevers.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is visiting flood-affected areas and relief camps daily, called for more international help Sunday.
“With over 400 (children) dead they make up one third of overall death toll. Now they are at even greater risk of water borne diseases, UNICEF and other global agencies should help,” he tweeted.
UNICEF, in fact, delivered tons of medicine, medical supplies, water purifying tablets and nutritional supplements to Pakistan on Sunday.
Alkidmat Foundation, a welfare organization, said its volunteers used boats to deliver ready-to-eat meals and other help for residents as well as animal feed on a small island in the Indus. The group also distributed food and items needed by those living by the roadside.
In the country’s northwest, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial disaster management authority warned of more rains, possible flash floods and landslides in the coming week in Malakand and Hazara districts. Taimur Khan, spokesman for the authority, urged residents Sunday not to go to any of the areas already flooded in recent weeks.
According to initial government estimates, the devastation has caused $10 billion in damage, but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Saturday “the scale of devastation is massive and requires an immense humanitarian response for 33 million people.”
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Associated Press journalists Mohammad Farooq in Sukkur, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Pakistan floods wash away a family's marriage hopes
Kaneez FATIMA
Sun, September 4, 2022
Truck driver and father-of-seven Mureed Hussain was planning for his daughter's October wedding when floodwater inundated his home, taking away the entire back wall and, with it, her hard-earned dowry.
"I had been collecting her dowry for almost three years," Hussain told AFP from the courtyard of his four-room house, which he shares with his brother's family.
"I would provide for the house and also spend a little on her dowry."
Record monsoon rains have caused devastating floods across Pakistan since June, killing more than 1,200 people and leaving almost a third of the country under water, affecting the lives of 33 million.
The hardest hit are the poor in rural parts of the country, who have seen their homes, belongings, life savings, and crops washed away.
Hussain's village in Punjab province was badly affected, with floodwater destroying or damaging scores of buildings.
Also washed away are marriage plans for Hussain's daughter, Nousheen.
Each month Hussain would put away a couple of thousand rupees for her dowry from the 17,000 rupee salary ($80) he makes driving trucks.
It is customary for families in patriarchal Pakistan to provide extravagant dowries when a daughter is married.
In many areas, parents are expected to start saving up for their daughters' dowries from the day they are born.
While demanding a large dowry is officially banned by law, it is still a practice observed by many.
The families of grooms frequently present the parents of their future daughter-in-law with an extensive list of demands -- including furniture, household goods and clothing.
In the case of wealthy families, it can even include cars and homes.
Failing to come up with the goods is considered shameful, and the bride-to-be often faces ill-treatment by her in-laws if a decent dowry is not provided.
- Shock and tears -
"I wanted to marry off my other two daughters after her and one remaining son," Hussain said.
"I had thought I would be able to do it gradually."
When the floods reached his home, Hussain fled with his wife and family to a nearby railway station on elevated land.
When the waters receded, Hussain trudged through mud two days ago and returned to his home with his wife and daughters.
"They started crying when they saw the damage," he said.
His wife, Sughra Bibi, teared up again as she recalled her shock at the condition of the home -- and her daughter's dowry.
Over the years, Sughra had bought a custom-made bed set and dressing table, as well as a juicer, washing machine, iron, bedsheets, and quilts.
Everything was badly damaged by the floodwater.
"It's blackened, so whoever sees it will say we have given her old things," Sughra said.
With the wedding called off, Nousheen is putting on a brave face.
"It was supposed to be a happy time for my family, and I was very excited," the 25-year-old told AFP.
"I have seen how difficult it was for my parents to put this dowry together for me. Now they have to do it all over again."
"It's such a big problem for us now," father Hussain said.
"Should we rebuild our house, sow wheat or get our children married? All three things are so important for us."
kf-fox/dhc
