In 2024, Pakistan faced devastating floods and extreme heatwaves, hindering its recovery from the existing climate crisis. The impacts of Climate Change on the economic and physical health of the Pakistani population are evident.
How can a growing sense of climate anxiety or “eco-anxiety” in locals be addressed?
Pakistan is facing an onslaught of climate disasters. Since record floods in 2022 that affected 33 million residents and caused more than $15 billion in damages, the country has faced several new crises that have hampered a sustained recovery.
In February 2024, flash floods further upended lives and livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Gwadar, the heart of a billion-dollar investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The summer of 2024 has been marked by scorching heat with thousands of Pakistanis succumbing to heatstroke and inundating healthcare facilities.
Yet, while the economic and physical health impacts of climate change are clear, Pakistan’s population is also experiencing the often overlooked mental health ramifications. The devastating effects of the floods and extreme heat have stoked a sense of climate anxiety or “eco-anxiety” in locals, a term popularly used to convey despairing sentiments around the climate crisis. Profound unease and uncertainty about how relentless climate disasters could diminish the quality of life are deeply felt, even if not always articulated.
While eco-anxiety impacts are somewhat better documented in developed nations, places like Pakistan – classified as among the most climate-challenged countries – offer a prime opportunity to better probe these effects in the developing world.
While the impacts of eco-anxiety are somewhat better documented in developed nations, places like Pakistan – classified as among the most climate-challenged countries – offer a prime opportunity to better probe these effects in the developing world.
Read more: pacific insight
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Women and young people are distinctly impacted by climate shocks
Climate change disproportionately affects the mental health of women and youth, whose needs and concerns are often sidelined during major climate disasters. Moreover, these disasters can create a state of disorder that diverts resources away from alleviating prevailing inequities, instead deepening them. The population of these climate-affected areas is further marginalized in terms availability of services.
These disasters disrupt community networks that are critical for Pakistani women’s social support, in turn heightening feelings of isolation and anxiety. These events can potentially expose them to additive traumatic circumstances, consistent with reporting that early marriages and intimate partner violence surge during times of climate change-driven instability.
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How digitalization kept aid coming to flood-hit Pakistanis
Digitalization has played a central role in streamlining and ensuring the effective distribution of aid to flood-affected communities in Pakistan. With the country experiencing severe floods in recent years, especially in 2010 and 2022, digital tools and platforms have transformed how aid is distributed, tracked, and accessed by those in need. Online cash transfer applications, Including Easypaisa, Jazzcash, etc play a significant role in providing financial assistance to the affectees.
Pakistani youth are also at elevated risk of mental health impacts from climate change. A looming concern that emerged from our conversations with young people revolved around missed educational prospects, as schools have been forced to close owing to the floods.
Moreover, the young experience eco-anxiety rooted in uncertainty about future job opportunities. This interplay of educational and employment challenges, brought into sharp focus by the climate crisis, calls for youth-oriented solutions to target their unique mental health struggles.
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The stigma surrounding mental health is difficult to break
Mental health is already a heavily stigmatized topic in Pakistan, often associated with notions of witchcraft or evil spirits. Adding the dimension of mental health struggles connected to climate disasters further complicates this delicate discourse. Local People are now recognizing the importance of mental health but emphasized that pervasive taboos around the subject discouraged them from seeking support. Comparatively, many of the older seemed significantly less familiar with mental health as a general concept, even struggling to find the corresponding term for it in their local dialect. Others expressed skepticism about the utility of mental health care services, despite approximately 50 million Pakistanis facing some variety of mental health challenges.
Read more: pacific insight
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The intergenerational divide on climate action persists
Another point of contention that emerged is the generational gap in perspectives on climate issues, particularly the importance of climate action to help mitigate eco-anxiety. The younger Pakistanis are passionate about championing climate causes and conveyed interest in working towards sustainable solutions for their community. However, older people often described climate change with rhetoric such as “God’s will”, highlighting contrasting views on whether individuals can improve climate outcomes and decrease the underlying causes of eco-anxiety. Closing this intergenerational divide through informed dialogue and collaborative objectives is vital. Implementing “climate cafes” or discussion spaces designed for sharing complicated feelings about climate change and uncovering avenues for effective actions, may prove a useful launching point.
A way forward
Despite having a negligible environmental footprint, Pakistan is enduring the worst of the climate shocks and bearing a serious though underreported severe mental health burden as a result.
Climate-induced disasters are limiting the opportunities for the people of affected areas while living in a technological era. The local population is desperate because they have lost all the means even to spend an ordinary life. Diminishing opportunities makes them more vulnerable to mental health problems. They knew that no one would come to rescue this situation under the precarious political instability. Adapting strategies that foster culturally sensitive conversations and promote nurturing spaces would constitute a critical step forward.
