Islamabad, July. 07 (INP) -- The promotion of local scientists and researchers through capacity building and viable opportunities is crucial to driving Indigenous sustainable urbanization to ward off the risks of urban flooding, said Romina Khurshid Alam, The Coordinator for the Prime Minister on Climate Change addressing the one-day workshop on Urban Floods: Implications for Resilience organized by the Pak-German Climate & Energy Partnership and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). She said, “Infrastructure development must keep climate risks in view to sustain climate aftershocks. Adaptation goals needed to be set as per the local needs and realities as new technologies were emerging in the field but indigenous knowledge and techniques need to be incorporated in the climate risk mitigation strategies”.

Romina said that the efforts and resources should be utilized in the right direction to achieve optimum results whereas youth and media need to be trained further to enhance the climate resilience of the country. To overcome the crisis Pakistani experts and human resources should be promoted at all forums. Sobiah Becker, Advisor, Pak-German Climate and Energy Partnership, said, “Pakistan is the first country with whom Germany forged a partnership for climate action. We believe that the National Adaptation Plan needs a bottom-up and a top-down approach, whereas there is a need to focus on adaptation and resilience, as well as energy transition to mitigate negative climate impacts".

Zainab Naeem, the Associate Research Fellow at SDPI, said, “The country's urbanization trend was primarily fuelled by migration, instability, and economic necessity. The 2022 floods revealed the extreme vulnerability of the urban centers against climate catastrophes. Pakistan needs to improve its urban development trajectory with sustainable interventions to enhance resilience against disasters. The country had a housing backlog of nine million units whereas climate risk insurance was absent in the housing sector with limited awareness among the masses of it”. Dr Zeba Sathar from Population Council Pakistan said, “Population was crucial to ensure climate resilience interventions but it was extremely neglected internationally. There is no mention of population at international COP forums yet. The global community is also reluctant to discuss population under climate negotiations to offset carbon emissions generated through the population boom. She mentioned the case study of the Council indicating 14 districts with high-risk levels and another 26 districts with medium risk of urban flooding in the country”.

She said that some 34 million urban population within the above districts was highly vulnerable to floods with over four million children and 1.2 million elderly people living in these areas who were the weakest among the population to relocate during disasters. So, there should be a focus on adaptation strategies, additional data collection, better coordination among government agencies, and improved assessment of flood risk.  Dr Irfan Rana from the University of Nevada in his case study presentation said, “There is a need to work on risk communication to educate the masses on the hazards of urban flooding. There is a need to develop a robust platform based on heat maps where risk maps can be placed to identify high-risk areas to identify potentially vulnerable communities and enable informed decision-making”.

Wolfgang Hesse, Cluster Coordinator of Energy & Climate GIZ Pakistan said, “The workshop was critical to understanding urban floods and the resilience landscape in Pakistan. Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country due to climate change, whereas the Floods of 2022 are a reminder of its vulnerability to climate disasters. The 2022 floods affected half of the population of the country and caused $15 billion in infrastructure losses to the country”. He said that 40% of Pakistanis are facing rapid urbanization whereas the UN predicted that by 2025, 50% population of the country will be settling in urban areas, hence multiplying its vulnerability. The GIZ was working to enhance climate resilience in Pakistan and strengthen institutional capacities at different tiers under the Pak-German Climate and Energy Partnership.

Dr. Shafqat Munir, Deputy Executive Director, SDPI said, “Urbanization is the focus due to massive displacement from rural to urban centers in the country whereas tempering with nature was increasing with unbridled urban expansion. Major cities are at risk of urban flooding as natural flows are hampered due to urbanization”. He said that Germany as a friend of Pakistan was assisting in adopting modern technologies to cope with adverse climate events. However, the National Disaster Management Authority is working around anticipatory actions that indicate that realization has increased in the quarters concerned to actively cope with climate change impacts”.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)