The Sindh Province in Pakistan, with a population of around 50 million, is recognised as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in South Asia. The province is located at the lower Indus Basin and experiences extreme temperatures in summers and winters. The region’s population is severely affected by the recurring heat waves, floods, sea level rise, and droughts. According to a World Bank report, Sindh is the most vulnerable hotspot in Pakistan in terms of the impact of the long-term changes in the climate on living standards of the population.
Given its growing challenges in dealing with climate change, budget allocation and spending on climate change are critical measures through which the province can keep up with the mitigation measures needed to address the devastating impact of extreme weather conditions.
A policy research organization, The Citizenry, analysing provincial government’s budgetary spending on climate change related areas, reported that the Sindh Government spent only 41 percent of its budget allocation on the provincial Environment, Forest, Climate Change, Coastal Development, Wildlife, and Rehabilitation departments from 2007 to 2022-23. Experts believe there could have been less loss and damage in past mega floods and heat waves if the provincial government had fully utilized the allocations in the above-mentioned departments.
The government’s total allocation in these departments was Rs. 48.8 billion, while it could spend a mere Rs. 20.2 billion in 16 years. What stood out as shocking in the budget analysis of the most climate-change-prone province was the stark gap in the allocation to the Rehabilitation or Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Rs 20.5 billion, and spending which stood at only Rs. 4.7 billion was spent.
Surprisingly, as Sindh grapples with prolonged heat wave in the ongoing year, the allocation for the PDMA in the current budget has dropped by 35.9 per cent. The allocation for the Rehabilitation Department – responsible for disaster management including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery – has been sporadic over the past decade. In 2011-12, only Rs. 145 million was allocated. This was increased to Rs. 500 million in the both 2012-13 and 2013-14. It then decreased to Rs. 360 million in 2014-15, increased to Rs. 650 million in 2015-16, and further to Rs. 692 million in 2016-17, reaching Rs. 700 million in 2017-18. The budget dropped again to Rs. 400 million in 2018-19, further to Rs. 381 million in 2019-20, before increasing significantly to Rs1.805 billion in 2020-21 and peaking at Rs 2.3 billion in 2021-22. It was then slashed again to Rs. 1 billion in 2022-23, further reduced to Rs. 708 million in 2023-24, and finally to Rs. 453.6 million for the upcoming financial year 2024-25.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Sindh Environment Department – responsible for implementing the environmental laws in the province – made zero expenditures up to June 2023, according to the Sindh Public Sector Development Plan expenditure report for the ongoing financial year.
The zero expenditure started from the year 2018-19, meaning no schemes were worked upon in the past six years, the time when Sindh experienced two major floods in 2020 and 2022. In financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14, the Environment Department made developmental expenditures as low as Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 580,000, respectively.
In the past 17 years, the provincial Environment Department had allocations for ten development schemes, five of which were for various environmental studies and awareness programmes. None of these were concerned about heat waves or their impacts.
These environmental studies and awareness programmes related to climate change and the environment have been included in the PSDP for more than a decade, yet there has yet to be any work to show. I have personally contacted the Sindh Environment Department to access to the never-ending studies, conducted with taxpayer money and featured in the provincial budget documents for years. However, I was told that the studies still need to be finalized.
Even the Provincial Rehabilitation Department (PDMA), responsible for the rehabilitation of citizens in the event of disasters, including heatwaves, has never had any development schemes to combat heat waves in the province.
The Sindh Health Department has a total of six sub-sectors and 210 development schemes with an allocation of Rs. 31.4 billion including funds through foreign project assistance in the financial year 2024-25. There is no health-related development scheme addressing rising temperatures.
The PPP-led Sindh government drafted its Climate Change Policy document, acknowledging that its residents have increasingly been becoming vulnerable to rising temperatures.
The PPP-led Sindh government drafted its Climate Change Policy document, acknowledging that its residents have increasingly been becoming vulnerable to rising temperatures.
The policy document emphasises that the impact of heat is “exacerbated by lack of knowledge and poor early warning systems.” It also notes that the mortality rate among women during heat waves is higher than men due to sociocultural factors that restrict women’s mobility, knowledge and skills.
The policy miserably failed to have any reflection in the provincial Annual Development Programme. There’s a noticeable lack of public awareness regarding dealing with heat waves and rising temperatures. Moreover, the government has also continued to invest in development projects that uproot trees and contribute to the urban heat island effect.
Moving towards the Sindh Coastal Development Department, the provincial government has reduced the allocation from Rs. 795.1 million to Rs. 432.6 million in the current financial year. According to the PSDP documents, the actual expenditure of Rs. 56.9 million up to June 2022 rose to Rs. 177.9 million up to June 2023, in the coastal development sub department.
