ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top disaster management body has warned that the country is facing a climate emergency as major natural hazards have been hitting every two months and now pose a grave “national security threat,” underscoring the urgent need for resilience and preparedness measures.
Pakistan, which ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, has experienced increasingly erratic, frequent weather events, including heat waves, untimely rains, storms, cyclones and droughts, in recent years, which scientists have blamed on human-driven climate change.
The South Asian country is currently reeling from one of the deadliest floods in its history that have claimed more than 850 lives, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The deluges swept away livestock and swathes of prime farmland in the most populous Punjab province.
Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday, NDMA chief Lt. Gen. Inam Haider Malik said they were planning short-, medium- and long-term measures to deal with these frequently occurring climate disasters, including the monsoon season that bring South Asia up to 80 percent of its annual rainfall.
“After every two months, Pakistan is facing a big disaster, in which the winter hazards are yet to come, after that, the early heatwave will come, and whatever will be triggered by the early heatwave, in which there are forest fires, and the next heatwave, and after that, another monsoon,” Malik said.
