Urban strategy process started for climate-resilient cities

In view of an impending challenge that Pakistan’s cities are rapidly turning into epicentres of climate vulnerability, the federal government has initiated consultations on the country’s first-ever National Urban Strategy aimed at protecting urban centres from floods, heatwaves, water shortages and unregulated construction. The consultative process was launched during a high-level national workshop jointly organised by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination and UN-Habitat Pakistan amid growing concern over recurring climate disasters from the Swat floods and Karachi’s annual urban inundations to fatal rain incidents in Islamabad’s upscale housing societies. Federal and top key provincial officials, disaster management authorities, urban planners, development experts and international organisations attended the session to help shape what officials called a “climate-resilient roadmap” for Pakistan’s rapidly expanding cities. Presiding over the event, Climate Change Secretary Aisha Humera Moriani warned that Pakistan’s urban growth was outpacing its ability to withstand climate shocks. “Our cities are becoming urban heat islands, flood traps and water-stressed zones because climate risks were never integrated into the way we planned and governed them,” she said. Ms Moriani noted that more than 36 per cent of Pakistan’s population already lived in urban areas and projected that over half the country would reside in cities within two decades. Referring to recurring floods in Rawalpindi’s Nullah Lai and Nowshera, she said encroachments, poor waste management and outdated drainage systems had dangerously increased urban flooding risks. “The hard truth is that no national framework currently exists to systematically address these interconnected challenges,” she observed. Senior Joint Secretary Muhammad Ijaz Ghani linked recent climate disasters directly to poor urban governance and unchecked construction.