Monsoons, Hydropower, and Climate Justice in Pakistan's River Communities

• Author: Nadia B. Ahmad & Mushtaq ur Rasool Bilal
• Pages: 471-492

471

Monsoons, Hydropower, and

Climate Justice in Pakistan’s

River Communities

Nadia B . Ahmad and Mushtaq ur Rasool Bilal*

Introduction .................................................................................................471

I. Ongoing Water-Energy Crisis and Trouble With Large Dams ..............475

II. Sino-Pakistan Collaboration ................................................................486

III. Lessons for the Climate Justice Movement ...........................................489

Conclusion ...................................................................................................492

Introduction

Floods from torrential monsoon rains have become a regular phenomenon in

Pakistan. During the past 10 years, the country witnessed massive ooding,

with the 2010 oods being the most devastating.1 In order to comprehend

the extent of losses caused by the 2010 oods, consider that the 20 million

people aected by these oods were more than the entire populations hit by

the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Kashmir earthquake (2005), Cyclone

Nargis (2008), and the Haiti earthquake (2010) combined based on gures

from the United Nations. At the time of the ood, United Nations Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon said, “Make no mistake: this is a global disaster, a global

challenge. It is one of the greatest tests of global solidarity in our times.”2

1. Monsoon 2011: Backlash of the Floods?—History of Pakistan Floods in Detail, P W P-

, June 13, 2011, http://pakistanweatherportal.com/2011/06/13/monsoon-2011-backlash-of-the-

oods-history-of-pakistan-oods-in-detail/.

2. Press Release, United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly Calls for Strengthened Emergency

Relief to Meet Pakistan’s Urgent Needs After Massive Destruction Caused by Unprecedented, Devas-

* is chapter has beneted from the feedback of the presenters and participants of the

Yale Department of Geology & Geophysics’ Tropical Extremes Workshop on High-impact

Weather Events in Monsoon Regions, which was jointly sponsored by the Yale Climate

& Energy Institute and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clark Kempf Fund at the Yale

MacMillan Center. Special thanks to Randall Abate for the invitation to contribute to

this volume and to Tatiana Devia, Sacha Dixon, and Dillon Andreassi for their excellent

research assistance. Reprint permission granted by Dawn and e News.

Chapter 17

472 Climate Justice

e monsoon ooding has put Pak istan at the front lines of climate

change. e country’s river communities, coasta l areas, and mountain-

ous regions are subject to the dramatic eects of climate change, includ-

ing droughts, heat waves, sea-level rise, erosion, and ooding. Infra structure

stability, agricultural yield, water and energy supplies, air quality, forestry,

ecosystem balance, and public health are at risk becau se of the deleterious

impacts of climate change. ese negative consequences of climate change

will strike Pakistan rst and hardest. Existing conditions of poverty, drought,

energy crisis, conict, and political instability will aggravate the ongoing and

future perils of climate cha nge.

Climate change activists throughout the world applauded the outcome

in the 2015 Leghari case in Pakistan.3 In this la ndmark climate change law-

suit, Ashgar Legha ri, a farmer in the Rahim Yar Khan District, in Pakistan’s

South Punjab region, sued the national government for failure to adhere to

the actions stated in the 2012 National Climate Policy and Framework.4

e Lahore High Court ruling, citing both the right to life and the right to

human dignity, stated:

Climate Cha nge is a denin g challenge of our time and has led to dramatic

alterations in our planet’s climate system. For Pakistan, thes e climatic varia-

tions have primarily resulted in heavy oods and droughts, raising serious

concerns regarding water and food sec urity. On a legal and constitutional

plane this is a clarion cal l for the protection of fund amental rights of the

citizens of Pakistan, in particular, the vulnerable and weak se gments of the

society who are unable to approach t his Court.5

More than half of Pak istanis (53%) feel that life has become worse in the

past ve years, and nearly ha lf of people in Pakistan (44%) feel that changes

in t he climate and environment are having an impact on their lives now.6

ese climate impacts include “the interrelated eects of increased tempera-

tures, erratic rainfall, increased extreme weather events, and increased pests

and mosquitoes.”7 Drawing on the recurring monsoon ooding, the increas-

tating Floods, U.N. Doc. GA/10969 (Aug. 19, 2010), http://www.un.org/press/en/2010/ga10969.

doc.htm.

3. Leghari v. Federation of Pakistan, W.P. No. 25501/2015 (Lahore High Court Sept. 14, 2015), http://

edigest.elaw.org/sites/default/les/pk.leghari.091415.pdf.

4. Jessica Wentz, Lahore High Court Orders Pakistan to Act on Climate Change, C L S

C L B, Sept. 26 2015, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2015/09/26/

lahore-high-court-orders-pakistan-to-act-on-climate-change/#sthash.LiJ8Tb4a.dpuf 20.

5. Leghari, W.P. No. 25501/2015.

6. K Z  A C, P: H  P  P L W C

C  W C C D 4 (2013).

7. Id.