Sherry calls for urgent action after torrential rains claim 81 lives in Pakistan
KARACHI (TLTP): Senator Sherry Rehman, Vice President of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Saturday strongly condemned the tragic loss of 81 lives resulting from the recent torrential rains across various parts of Pakistan and urged administrative authorities to take proactive and immediate measures to protect vulnerable communities.
She said: “My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of the 81 precious lives lost due to the recent torrential rains in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Azad Kashmir. The devastation faced by over 200 damaged homes only deepens our collective grief and concern over the disruptions climate stress continues to cause with the onset of unpredictable and extreme weather. These tragic losses also serve as an urgent reminder of the need to address both the causes and impacts of climate change, and adapt our strategies to protect vulnerable communities.”
Rehman pointed out that despite Pakistan’s contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions being only 0.9%, the country had once again found itself grappling with a resource deficit as the nation was forced to build local capacities to adapt to pre-monsoon storms and other climate stresses.
“These challenges are triggering severe trauma across Pakistan, with unprecedented rainfall and the looming threat of potential floods,” she stressed.
The senator said that throughout April, climate disasters continued to intensify public trauma in the north of the country through a season of dangerous snowmelt in Pakistan’s glaciers.
“The severe inundation caused by ‘glacial lake outburst floods’ now regularly endangers the lives and property of those living in the catchment areas, forcing local communities to migrate and lose livelihoods and homes,” she said, adding that it was important to remember that a third of the country’s 7,000 glaciers were projected to melt by the turn of this century.
“Any saving of these water towers will only be possible by a lowering of global warming and carbon emissions. Given that global reliance on fossil fuels still continues apace and Paris targets are off despite the commitment to grow renewables, Pakistan’s resilience capacities and disaster management infrastructure will have to be hugely enhanced to adapt our monitoring and response strategies,” the senator said.
Rehman added that the country’s first lines of defense – the disaster management agencies – will have to face new and old challenges at all levels to contain the fallout from the accelerated pace of climate-induced events in frontline geographies like Pakistan.
“I can only hope that we have gleaned valuable lessons from the 2022 floods and will double our social and capital investments in protecting our population as best as we can.”
