Rising temperatures trigger water, food insecurity in Pakistan, India
KARACHI, Pakistan/NEW DELHI, India – Rising temperatures- a direct result of climate change- are aggravating water, food, and biodiversity insecurity in Pakistan and India, which may worsen in the years to come, according to environmentalists based in the region.
An intense heatwave is currently sweeping through the two nuclear-armed neighbors with temperatures hitting 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Pakistan and 49 degrees Celsius in India.
With forecasts predicting that the wave will keep up the heat through the coming days, environmentalists caution that the soaring temperatures will speed up the melting of glaciers, which would ultimately damage crops and pastures while further shrinking wetlands.
“Already melting glaciers are the primary target of climate change, mainly the rising temperatures, which will lead to acute water shortages and subsequently, hit agriculture and biodiversity in the region,” Ashiq Ahmad Khan, an environmentalist based in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, said.
Apart from that, he went on to say, millions of people in the mountainous north who rely on livestock, are losing their livelihoods due to the climate-induced destruction of pastures.
Mahesh Palawat, the head of India’s private weather agency Skymet, said that events like unusual temperatures in the country are the result of climate change.
“Now, because of the western disturbances, there has been some relief,” he said, adding that pre-monsoon weather activities are expected to start soon.
Palawat said India’s northwestern and central regions were badly impacted due to the heatwaves, which also triggered power outages and a water crisis in many parts.
In the capital New Delhi, lakes and other bodies of water have started drying up, leading to complaints of a water shortage.
Sardar Sarfraz of the Meteorological Department of Pakistan said the ongoing heatwave was “unusual” due to its early arrival.
“It came over two weeks before the expected arrival because of climate change,” said the chief meteorologist.
He noted that March and April had seen historically high temperatures with respectively 62% and 72% less rainfall than usual.
Pakistan and India are among the top 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change.
The severity of sea storms and cyclones have also increased in both countries due to climate change over the past 10 years.
Apart from water stress and glacial melting, he said, the monsoon season is shifting, directly impacting South Asian countries’ agricultural output.
India, the second-largest wheat producer in the world, banned staple exports last week, citing a risk to food security and soaring prices.
Despite having one of the world’s largest irrigation systems, Pakistan is an importer of wheat, lintels, and other staples as its agricultural lands shrink due to a string of factors ranging from massive floods to drought, as well as the country’s increasing housing crunch.
In the northeastern Punjab and southern Sindh provinces, increasing populations and housing needs have in recent years turned large swathes of green lands into concrete jungles, not only in the big cities but in small districts as well. Both regions are considered the country’s two main agricultural centres.
Also, more than 2 million people were displaced by floods that inundated a fifth of the country in 2010, triggering mass migration to cities from rural Pakistan.
Of that figure, almost 70% did not return to their towns and villages, permanently settling in the big cities to make a living as their old homes and farmlands were destroyed, according to the Ministry of Climate Change.
In India, massive rains and floods displace tens of thousands of people every year, in addition to damaging large swaths agriculture lands.
A State of the Climate report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned that the region should now expect a heatwave that exceeds record temperatures seen in 2010 once every three years.
Without climate change, it added, such extreme temperatures would occur only once every 312 years.
Heatwaves are common across the two countries in May, June, and July. However, summer came early this year, bringing temperatures to new highs in March.
According to the UN report, climate change is driving up the intense heat, making record-breaking temperatures 100 times more likely.
The report is based on a heatwave that hit northwestern India and Pakistan in April and May 2010, when the region saw its highest average temperatures since 1900.
If climate change follows the trends predicted in the study, India and Pakistan can expect similarly high temperatures virtually every year by the end of the century.