TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN - PPP’s Election Manifesto doesn’t prioritise the climate change as major issue of Sindh province. Quarter of the population badly affected, displaced and migrated in floods almost every year but least concern about this major issue.
Recently, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari unveiled a 10-point elections manifesto of its party, but climate affected province is yet to get main concern even after continuous floods and natural disasters had been severally affecting the southern part of the province since 2010. Millions of people displaced, migrated and their agriculture land is still inundated in last floods of 2022 which further also damaged the drainage and water supply system in most of the districts.
More than dozens of districts in upper and lower Sindh are still under water and people are living in a tent and have not been able to rebuild their houses. Rain destroyed their standing agriculture fields and unable to afford to buy wheat and that there is a severe shortage of food. Schools and basic health units are without infrastructure and facilities after rain emergency.
According to United Nations Organizations sub-office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs published on 9th March, 2023, states that there are more than 31,000 internally displace people in Sindh province, who are living near stagnant water, leading to higher cases of vector-borne disease contributing starvation. Reports say that even the people in most of the areas are still unable to go to their work. As per report of International Labour Organization (ILO) data, approximately 4.3 million labours, farmers and daily-wages people lost their jobs and are suffering economic loss.
The province of Sindh was the most affected in 2022 floods in Pakistan where more than a 1,000 people died and over 12 million about a quarter of the province’s population of about 50 million were affected, reported by Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). The official figures releases, nearly 1.5 million houses were destroyed another 600,000 partially damaged, and around 1.5 million hectares of crops were damaged. The overall situation depicts very poor policy of the Sindh government yet but its current manifesto of party still doesn’t reflect any meaningful strategy to combat the natural disasters, floods and emergency situation in future too.
