Pakistan’s eco-disaster innovators and change seekers

To put the scale of this disaster in focus, twenty-three million hectares of agricultural land was flooded, which is an area three times the size of Portugal. An estimated 750,000 animals have been lost, while crop damages are around $15 billion to $20 billion. The entire cotton crop is lost – it’s Pakistan’s largest staple crop and contributes about 1% to 2% of GDP. Date palm, rice, sugar cane, and other crops have seen at least 50% loss.

For a country with limited resources, the road to recovery is certainly a hard one. And yet there are some new innovative ideas that shine a light on the potential path out of the dark forest – especially in terms of crisis prevention.

Forbes magazine recently highlighted the work of Muhammad Uzair Qamar, associate professor in the Department of Irrigation and Drainage at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad.?He has developed a portable water monitoring system that he hopes will transmit live flow data across hundreds of kilometres from remote deployment sites. “We’re developing a product that monitors two parameters: area of the channel and the velocity of the water flowing through the channel. Once we have these parameters, we can measure discharge/flow rate, and then transmit the data to a remote source.” Qamar believes such instruments are the only possible way to predict natural disasters and improve the Pakistani public’s understanding of climate change.

Another fearless voice looking to tackle eco-problems head on is Sidra Riaz, founder of the?Environmental Change Makers. Her mission is focused on education and explaining to every level of society that climate change permeates every facet of life in Pakistan – economic empowerment, health, food production, and water scarcity. “Climate change should be on the forefront of all political agendas, with a very proactive approach from the government. If this issue is left unchecked, the repercussions of our inaction and our negligence will wreak great destruction in Pakistan and millions of people will struggle even to subsist in the coming years,” she told Forbes.

Riaz states that since Pakistan contributes less than half of one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is a victim of climate injustice and should therefore be provided climate reparations to help strengthen Pakistan’s institutional framework for building climate resilient infrastructure. This would also pay for the cost of restoration for the next ten years.

Of course here I would like to mention my own team at EveryWater (PakVitae), Shayan Sohail, Arslan Ahmad and Hafiz Usama Tanveer. Their work developing, producing and personally distributing their sustainable, and highly efficient filtration technology packaged in an inexpensive and easy to use unit that needs no power to convert any water to clear drinking water immediately has saved the lives of millions of families post flood.

These strong voices with even stronger ideas are much needed right now – as is unflinching decision-making – if we are to drive sustainable and resilient environmental change and build a capacity for Pakistan to cope.