Islamabad, September 07, 2022 (PPI-OT):Kicking off the Lyari River Clean-up initiative with private sector consortium partners led by Coca Cola Pakistan, and the Ocean Clean Up team from Netherlands, Senator Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister of Climate Change, with support from the Karachi Port Trust, addressed multi sectoral stakeholders from across the country for a roundtable session, to build a coalition for climate adaptation steps such as resourcing innovation in restoring the health of Karachi’s Lyari river.

Addressing the coalition of corporations and civil society along with Maritime Minister, Faisal Sabzwari, she said the federal government took full ownership of the plans and linked climate resilience initiatives to the need for adapting to an accelerated decade of climate change. She said that Pakistan was facing down its worst climate catastrophe and that it’s time to do whatever we can to secure our future.

“Make no mistake that this crisis is not one that was made by Pakistan. It is a man-made disaster, not a natural one but it is the one crisis that we have not created, let alone had a hand in advancing. Global warming is not triggered by Pakistan’s actions or low emissions, yet we are in the frontlines of a climate disaster that has devastated 70 percent of the country and inundated more than one-thirds, spawning one humanitarian crisis after another for more than 33 million people.

“In order to adapt for crises better we have to manage our resources, ensure that the public and private sectors are aligned on similar goals and objectives to adapt to the climate change havoc we are currently living through.”

Speaking about the Lyari River Clean-up project, Minister Rehman went into detail about the team at the Ocean Clean-up who have partnered with Coca Cola at joint behest to spearhead the clean-up. The river currently is the reason that 200 million tonnes of waste finds its way to the Arabian Sea. Industrial wastage from pharmaceuticals, petrochemical factories, garment factories and many others is dumped into the river.

The Minister then delved about linking this to a bigger federal initiative her ministry was planking, the Living Indus project, a pioneering effort in making the Indus River habitable for marine life and ensuring that its banks once again are the source of sustenance for the communities that lived along it. “The Indus River is the main artery of Pakistan, it is responsible for food security and it gives life to everything along it.

At one time one felt it’s majesty as they crossed the Kotri barrage but now, it is caught in the throes of climate change, impacting marine life and the mangroves, changing entire ecosystems and making many species vulnerable to extinction. Right now it is in full flood and almost the entire province of Sindh is literally covered in water.

We cannot put tents down on water, so people are putting up shelter on the few highways left on dry land. This is unparalleled in living memory. The Minister went into detail about each disaster faced by Pakistan. From heat waves, forest fires to unprecedented rainfall, Pakistan has seen it all.

A country with a rich repertoire of poetry celebrating the once relatively lighter monsoon season, it is faced now with a monster monsoon that has inundated Pakistan in a new map of human suffering, from a climate change reality it had no contribution in making. Pakistan’s emissions stand at 1% of global emissions yet it is amongst the top ten countries most susceptible to climate change, she said.

The Minister cited the need for building coalitions and support for a circular economy and an emphasis on recycling and raising awareness about climate change through the media as ways that Pakistan can bounce back better from this disaster. Plastic pollution is a real threat to marine and river ecosystems, so we do need to build the narrative and infrastructure to fight this trend.

Effluents too choke our oceans and rivers, so any initiative to resource thud holistic restoration of our biodiversity and the river’s own balance with nature must be supported. “Together, no matter how many governments come and go, I know we can work to make the shared dream of cleaning our rivers, from the Indus to the Lyari a reality.” she said.

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