PAKISTAN benefits from both military and economic clout due to its geographic location. Pakistan has made use of its strategic marine hubs, which span 1064 kilometres, to negotiate strategic partnerships with China and to stimulate trade with Central Asian landlocked nations. Coastal zones provide key services to local communities but also carry significant risks from the land and ocean including threats from waves, storm surges, floods and sea-level rise, all of which are increasing with climate change.
The effects of climate change are already noticeable along Pakistan’s shore, even though they pose a hazard for the future. Homes and infrastructure must be abandoned as a result of shoreline erosion brought on by the steady encroachment of rising sea levels on populated areas. The biodiversity of these waters is directly threatened by warming sea temperatures which are also having a significant impact on marine ecosystems by upsetting fisheries. Concurrently, rising carbon dioxide levels are causing ocean acidification which puts the fragile equilibrium of coastal ecosystems—including essential coral reefs—in much greater jeopardy.
There are several environmental problems in Pakistan’s coastal regions that directly affect local residents’ health. Poor drinking water quality, untreated sewage and household waste disposal, and untreated industrial effluent disposal all contribute to contamination, pollution, and hazards to public health. Mangrove forests and marine life in the region are being seriously contaminated by the rising pollution levels along the Karachi coastline, which are linked to the expanding amount of trade via the shipping industry through the Karachi Port. The government is currently confronted with the difficult task of promoting trade expansion to support economic expansion while also working to limit the environmental harm that these new opportunities bring.
Man-made changes to the coastal environment, such as coastal development activities, have also hastened the effects of pollution which has resulted in a decline in the quality of the coastal environment, the depletion of coastal resources, hazards to public health and a loss of biodiversity. The feasibility of creating an “energy corridor” to transport oil products to China and the Central Asia through Pakistan is being investigated by Pakistan. Pakistan intends to use Gwadar as a commercial and energy corridor with China and Central Asia. China is now building a deep channel port there. The delicate marine ecosystem would suffer as a result of all these operations.
Since a large portion of the factories’ wastewater is discharged into the port region untreated, the pollution from these enterprises is having an impact on the ecosystem. According to the 1991 Pakistan National Environmental Plan, power plants, refineries and steel mills are the three primary coastal industries closest to the port that produce the most effluents. Presently, the marine ecosystem is being increasingly seriously contaminated by several smaller industrial facilities and trade activity at the Karachi Port is predicted to increase gradually.
Also, oil refineries, shipping traffic, mechanized fishing fleets, oil terminals at Karachi Harbour, Port Qasim/the coastal line’s extensive oil shipments and ensuing dredging operations, which are characteristics typical of the maritime sector, are also having an impact on the ecosystem. However, there is no infrastructure in the port for receiving or treating oily ship waste, and an estimated 90,000 tons of oily discharges are pumped out annually. Dredging is the procedure of clearing the port of silt accumulation that prevents ships from entering and leaving. To keep the port open, the dredged material is discarded into the ocean. The lack of a system for tracking trace metals in the dredged waste, however, is probably making the situation worse. When oil is imported, which Karachi Port does in large quantities, oil spills are a constant risk.
Furthermore, as “recent changes have led to a major realignment in trading patterns in the region leading to the expansion of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to include the Central Asian states and Afghanistan along with Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. Pakistan stands already committed to provide a suitable deep water port for the landlocked countries of the ECO.” The ecology along the Karachi coastline is overburdened with pollution if the maritime sector doesn’t improve. The sediments and marine life are accumulating the heavy metals. The buildup of eight heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in Karachi’s coastal waters is particularly high in marine species that are part of the native fauna that lives in the polluted areas.
There is need to co-create new knowledge with coastal communities in calamities hit areas that on how ecosystem-based processes help to address climate risk and support equitable and effective nature-based solutions. Climate Change is the common enemy to blame whether are deadly floods, Lahore poisonous smog, land sliding in mountains area, freaking heat waves or any of other weather conditions.
—The writer is an entrepreneur, lawyer & freelance columnist.
(amnanasirjamal@gmail.com)
