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ABU DHABI, 29th August, 2022 (WAM) — Around the world, the indiscriminate effects of climate change and erratic weather events have been strongly felt over the years. The past few months have been especially important. A local newspaper commented that throughout the summer, these events continued to take a devastating, if unequal, toll on human life.
“Countries with very different climatic conditions and topography are bearing a similar burden: damage control from widespread weather-related damage,” The National said in an editorial on Monday.
People in all four hemispheres of the world receive regular reports of death, economic and humanitarian plight. Just this year, the list also includes: drought in England, heatwaves in continental Europe, wildfires in Spain, France, Portugal over the past two months; floods in parts of Australia; millions of people homeless in India and Bangladesh return; storms and deadly landslides in Brazil; tropical storms in northern Philippines this month. The U.S. has witnessed a ‘once in 200 years’ weather event of drought-induced flooding in Texas; just in recent days, the magnitude of the climate catastrophe in Sudan and Pakistan has become so evident that flooding has turned people upside down life, and even claimed the lives of many.
Sudan had to declare a state of emergency in response to flooding in six states. The floods have affected 136,000 people, killing 89 and injuring 40, according to the United Nations. Drone footage showed the village partially submerged in water. Like many other parts of the world, Sudan saw a similarly tragic scene last year.
Given the regularity of such weather events, whether wildfires or storms, it seems prudent for individual countries to step up their climate preparedness. Stronger infrastructure built to respond to unusual weather events is critical to saving lives and reducing damage.
For now, however, the UAE has responded with the urgency necessary to provide assistance to two disaster-stricken countries in need of supplies. President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ordered the delivery of humanitarian aid worth AED 25 million to Sudan, with 30 tonnes and 10,000 tents already delivered, as the UAE announces the establishment of Humanitarian air bridges, and more to come. Like Sudan, Sheikh Mohamed has ordered the delivery of 3,000 tons of food and other humanitarian aid to Pakistan.
The Daily Mail continued, “The trauma of this devastation is not easy to heal. In fact, where lives are lost, families are torn apart, often leaving permanent scars. But despite the trauma, when rich countries come forward Relief will go a long way when it comes to helping. It’s the only proper moral response. This was a widely lauded view by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Motley at the UN General Assembly last year, when she The speech strongly advocated for change in aid to climate-prone developing countries.
“In any affected area of the world, aid packages of food and medical supplies are a lifeline for people whose homes are washed away and in many cases practically without shelter until aid planes arrive with critical tent cargo.
“The seriousness of the situation in Pakistan’s Sindh province is reflected in its rising death toll, which has reached 1,033 due to the destruction of the water level of the Indus, Pakistan’s longest and most important river. In the past 24 hours, 119 People have lost their lives in Pakistan and 33 million people – almost 15% of the country’s population – have been affected.”
While natural disasters are unavoidable, the image of people struggling to deal with the aftermath of such events should lead countries to not only achieve their climate goals—as likely to be reiterated at Cop27, the climate summit in Egypt in November—but to allocate more resources to Support disaster management strategies. This will help countries, no matter what hemisphere, be better equipped to deal with the inevitable climate disasters effectively.
The Abu Dhabi-based daily concluded: “Floods and fires are not preventable by themselves. But with a warmer planet, the cost of a country’s lack of preparedness may be too high to bear in the coming years.”
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