Flood-ravaged Pakistan facing a food crisis that's not of its own making: UN
‘A lot of it is because of what we've done to the planet, collectively. And they're paying for it’
The whole world is responsible for the massive floods in Pakistan, and Rathi Palakrishnan says we need to step up to help with the recovery now.
Pakistan is grappling with food shortages after deadly floods left the impoverished country's agriculture belt under water.
The floods, which are caused by record monsoon rains and glacial melt in northern mountains, have affected 33 million people, killed 1,481 people and displaced millions. Homes, crops and livestock have been swept away.
The UN's secretary general called it the worst "climate carnage" he's ever seen and called on the international community to aid with the nation's recovery. Pakistan contributes less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, whereas G20 nations, together, are responsible for 80 per cent.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government will match donations made by Canadians to the Humanitarian Coalition to a maximum of $3 million. Canada will also send another $25 million to support development projects.
Palakrishnan, the deputy country director of the United Nations' World Food Program in Pakistan, spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal. Here is part of their conversation.
Give us a sense of what it's like where you are right now, [and] throughout Pakistan, because the rains have not abated, as I understand it.
When you fly over, all you see is water, water and more water. It's really difficult to find a speck of dry land.
There have been places that have never seen rain for decades. They were desert-like, and all of a sudden this year, they saw rains for the first time…. They've built mud houses that can't withstand this level of rain, floods [and] monsoons, and their homes have been completely washed away.
A big part of the concern is the risk of waterborne disease … [for] the tens of millions of people displaced throughout Pakistan. But then there's another issue now, and that is access to food. How would you describe the current situation on that front in Pakistan?
Pakistan is one of the most populous countries in the world — 230 million people — and their social safety net system is pretty mature and quite sophisticated…. It's known as the Benazir Income Support Program. [The Pakistani government has] already adapted it and expanded it so that they can give a cash stipend to almost 30 million people, [the] poorest of the poor.
They're also providing food items, shelter items, all sorts of non-food items to the affected population in a massive way, complete scale. And in terms of the United Nations, that's where we come in. [At] WFP, we scaled up to reach two million people. We've already reached 500,000 people with a mix of different food commodities — wheat, oil, salt. We're also reaching about 80,000 pregnant women, as well as children under two, with a very, very locally made, specialized, nutritious product. And that's certainly helping to alleviate some of the food shortages that some of the population is facing.
I know you and your colleagues have been taking a look at the situation, talking to farmers. What specifically are farmers you've spoken to telling you?
To understand that and to really respond to the question, we have to look at the situation pre-floods. So first of all, 54 per cent of Pakistan's … population, they're poor. And 38 million of them are food insecure.
Already pre-floods, we had really, extremely high food and fuel price inflation. And that really hits the poorest of the poor, and the farmers are part of the poorest of the poor. And they were confronted with locusts, with drought. The animals had lumpy skin disease. There were heat waves, so there was no spring this year. It went straight from winter straight into summer with scorching heat. Then we had the Ukraine crisis. So the combination of all those factors really pushed the poorest of the poor even further down the line.
These poor farmers … they've got to go to … middlemen traders to get the agricultural inputs, whether they're seeds or fertilizers. So they borrow those on credit. Then they plant. And in the end, as we know now, the flood waters have totally taken over. So there is no harvest to speak of, and they've got to pay back those middlemen they borrowed from.
What are they hoping for?
The international community, working very closely with the government, [needs] to invest. We need to help that farmer and provide the agricultural inputs and the seeds he or she needs to then replant.
The second thing is, we need the waters to recede … by October. You've got three months of planting — so October, November [and] December. And the last final month for planting so that we have a spring harvest is in December.
So hopefully — and they're all praying, I'm sure — that the waters recede, they pay back the middlemen whom they owed from the previous agricultural season; they receive seeds and different sorts of agricultural inputs, whether it's from the government or from the international donor communities or through [the UN Food and Agriculture Organization]; they work on community infrastructure programs, such as the ones we are going to roll out in the reconstruction phase; and then they can start building back and they can start harvesting and they can reclaim their lives that they've lost.
Is there one farmer's story, you know someone you or your colleagues have spoken to that their story sticks out to you?
They all tell the same story about how much money they owe and how much debt they have and how they have no hope of paying that debt off because they've lost the harvest. And they're sitting there in a sea of water around them, trying to find ways to feed their families. Sharing food, sharing meals, sharing tents. Worried about their livestock…. They're worried about waterborne diseases. They're covered in skin sores. They're worried about their animals also having disease.
But they still are hopeful and still are resilient. And they're very much counting on the international community to come together to help them.
What do you want listeners at home to take away from this?
I would say to put themselves in the shoes of someone living in Pakistan who's been hit by the floods.
None of what they've encountered in terms of the floods were their fault. And a lot of it is because of what we've done to the planet, collectively. And they're paying for it.
One day it's Pakistan. That's today. And tomorrow it could be another country, such as Canada. And we've all seen on the news... Canada's heat waves, the fires, the wildfires.
So climate change is real and it's here. And we've got to do our small bit to save the planet. And in terms of what we can do to save Pakistan, I would say to, you know, mobilize and lobby and advocate for the needs of the Pakistani people ... and have the government of Canada invest in Pakistan, particularly in the longer-term recovery period, because it will take a long time for the people here to recover and to build their livelihoods.
With files from Reuters and The Associated Press. Interview produced by Morgan Passi. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
