"Although our remit is strictly federal, we cannot ignore the forest fires raging across the country due to the heat wave and dry weather that sparks fires. This is why a Climate Change Task force was set up at the Federal Ministry for Climate Change, in response to the first fires that started in May this year, to coordinate climate-related actions as quickly as possible. All chief secretaries of all provinces, GB and AJK are in this task force which first met at Prime Ministers House and then has been meeting regularly at the MOCC along with NDMA and related departments.” Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman said while chairing the third meeting of the Task Force on Climate Change, attended by the Federal Minister for Water Resources Mr Khursheed Shah, provincial chief secretaries and other stakeholders, Later, Minister Rehman spoke at a press conference over the recent incidents of forest fires in Swat in Tehsil Kabal and District Bari Kot and the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP). “The fires in District Bari Kot are still raging while other 7 sites of the forest fires have been controlled by the provincial teams on ground. The provincial authorities are on alert for any more eruptions in the high risk zones. There have been several incidents of forest fires reported and dealt with in the MHNP in the last three days. The control room established by the MOCC has been fully active and has mobilized the staff for ground and aerial response to the incidents. At least three of these have been reported only today in the Margallas.” Focusing on the timely response to the forest fires, she said, “The lengthy heat wave across the country has aggravated forest fires in Balochistan, KPK, and Margalla Hills in Islamabad. In view of these incidents, SOPs for Prevention and Control of Forest Fires has been established on the directives of the Prime Minister’s Office. The SOPs direct actions for Risk Reduction, Prevention and Immediate Response on low and high intensity forest fire outbreaks for the federal and provincial authorities for immediate response and action. Last year IWMB and CDA fought fires that damaged an area of 189 acres. This year, despite more fires, our combined vigilance has controlled the damage to 45.42 acres in total in the Margallah Hills National Park. The task force had recommended immediate elevation of all forest fires to disaster grade level, which now triggers NDMA/PDMA responses too, among many other preventive protocols and response actions. Because of the task force the provinces have amended their forest laws to enhance penalties for arson.” Furthermore, “installment of Watch Towers with fire watchers (nigehbaan) during the fire season, clearings of Fire Lines for flammable materials have reduced the risk due to forest fires. Moreover, creating fire ditches, involvement of local communities and establishment of control rooms in all forest fire zones in all provinces with communication networks, equipment and staff are important measures.” “For immediate response, SOPs on forest fires have been chalked out by the Task Force. Many of the important climate change issues were raised at the international platforms at Davos and Stockholm+50. These SOPs include alerting all relevant provincial and federal authorities depending on the severity of the fires, deployment of fire-fighting and rescue staff, to carry out announcements in Mosques and Schools to alert nearby populations and carry out rescue operations during severe situations to prevent harm to local communities.” She also visited the firefighters at IWMB fire control and appreciated their efforts in tirelessly dealing with fires, “Our natural biodiversity is affected but thankfully no human life was lost. We had set up control rooms and monitoring systems for early monitoring of such incidents. Our firefighters have been vigilant in their efforts to curb the ongoing fires with little to no delay and should be duly appreciated.” Shifting the focus towards World Oceans Day, she expressed her concern over plastic waste ending up in the oceans through different water bodies or direct dumping, “there is a serious littering problem all throughout the country and most of the plastic litter among other things, is dumped into the Arabian Sea. According to the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, more than 90% of industrial wastewater is dumped into the sea without treatment. This is wreaking havoc to our marine environment. To make matters worse, around 2.6 million tonnes of plastic waste is mismanaged and makes its way into the Arabian Sea through our coastlines. Governments around the world are recognizing the need to develop national action plans to have coordinated efforts to deal with dumping of waste, especially plastics into the oceans. For Pakistan the loss of biodiversity should be an urgent call for frameworks that help the country to regenerate marine ecosystems, while protecting the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.” She concluded by saying, “we need to track all our interventions across a timeline for a phased transition. It's imperative that they are clearly defined for the political leaders and common man. Currently, budget allocations to Climate Change are overtaken by current economic crises and in any case , the climate change lifestyle shift requires a push from civil society, political leadership and other stakeholders. It must be recalled that this summer is warmer and April to June is traditionally the fire season in Pakistan, but the number and frequency of forest fires this year is worrying, and clearly linked to climate stress.”
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