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Extreme Climatic Changes in Pakistan & Its impact on Reproductive Health Sector.

by Momina Ahsan | 23-10-2022 02:40



In the era of Digitization and Revolutionized Development in humankind's history, climatic changes bring catastrophic impacts time-to-time. The developing countries have limited resources and distorted government reigns and face issues like non-civilized effects of natural disasters, housing loss, and malformed health management giving birth to infectious, non-infectious, and other deadly diseases. Pakistan is the 8th most vulnerable country getting affected by climatic changes. Recently, catastrophic impacts of flooding in Pakistan have affected more than 33 million people, most notable women from distant, tribal, and poor areas, where talking about feminine issues is considered taboo. The floods have created a humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and widespread distortion in infrastructure. Therefore, women in marginalized areas face the most significant challenges, including access to humanitarian assistance and reproductive health. Thousands of women are displaced from their sites, having no access to safe birthing places, grounds for post-partum care, and hygienic measures for monthly menstrual periods, with fewer or no healthcare facilities. Their lives, along with the infants, are highly at risk of getting deadly outcomes ranging from preterm (premature deliveries) due to excessive amounts of stress and UTIs like bacterial, fungal, and viral infections due to limited access to menstrual relief kits. Also, the taboo of cultural and traditional values prevailing in marginalized, religious, and tribal areas considering it wrong to talk about these issues, has worsened with time. Women from these areas use dirty clothes to cater to menstrual overflow, and in areas where everything has been washed off are using leaves as the only option to cater to this issue. In the Sindh province, more than 1,000 health facilities are partially or entirely damaged. In Baluchistan, 198 facilities are in a chaotic state.

Further compromising girls' and women's lack of access, roads and bridges in Pakistan have also been gravely damaged. Many pregnant women have also been exposed to these infectious diseases. The UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) even warned that about 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, including 73,000 expected to deliver in the next month, are in dire need of maternal health services. Half-a-million flood-displaced people continue to live in temporary shelters. There is growing concern about women's health and safety as they stay in dilapidated makeshift camps without showers and share toilets with strangers.

In the era of digitized revolution, imagine for a minute that a female bleed but find no relief due to no shelter, wet clothing, and trying to maintain her Parda, even during the worst condition. The time when periods can get heavier and more painful for some women after age 40 becomes a thoughtful scenario during floods. Sometimes it is a nuisance, and sometimes, it is a cause for concern. This is not the story of one female; it's the story of thousands of women stuck in floods with no shelter and facing the severity of pain without any relief products. We are focusing on Menstrual Relief to comfort and soothe women by providing Menstrual Relief Kits.

In this time of rapid assistance and hour of need, there is a dire need to break the taboos, myths, and stereotypes based on baseless facts about menstrual relief. As women's reproductive health continues its cycle and doesn't stop post-disaster, mobilization of sanitary and hygienic products is as necessary as food to live or breathe. By advancing their health opportunity during this time, the initiative can help people expand their capacities, making them learn and get consultancies effectively.

 

Pakistan is reported to have received more than three times its usual rainfall in August, making it the wettest August since 1961. The two southern provinces, Sindh and Balochistan, each experienced their wettest August ever recorded, receiving 7 and 8 times their usual monthly totals. The Indus river, which runs the country's length, burst its banks across thousands of square kilometers, while the intense rainfall also led to urban flash floods and landslides.

 

Research and Findings:

After continuous research, here are the findings directed to the extreme weather conditions in Pakistan:

-      The flooding happened as an immediate outcome of the outrageous storm precipitation all through the late spring 2022 season, exacerbated by more little spikes of extremely weighty downpours, especially in August, raising a ruckus around town Sindh and Balochistan. We separately consider the 60-day and 5-day most significant precipitation during the storm season for the Indus bowl and the two territories.

-      The overwhelming effects were additionally determined by the closeness of human settlements, framework (homes, structures, spans), and rural land to flood fields, lacking foundation, restricted ex-bet risk decrease limit, an obsolete stream-the-board framework, fundamental weaknesses driven by high destitution rates and financial variables (for example orientation, age, pay, and schooling), and progressing political and economic flimsiness.

-      The return time for the two occasions characterized above is around 1 out of 100 years in the current environment. Precipitation in the Indus site is anyway very factor from one year to another due to, among different drivers, the solid connection with the ENSO cycle. Hence, careful evaluation is troublesome.

-      To begin with, taking a look at the patterns in the perceptions, we observed that the 5-day most extreme precipitation over the regions Sindh and Balochistan is currently around 75% more severe than it would have been had the environment not warmed by 1.2C. While the 60-day across the area is presently around half more extraordinary, meaning precipitation this weighty is currently bound to occur. There are considerable vulnerabilities in these evaluations because of the significant fluctuation in rainfall in the locale, and noticed changes can have various drivers, including, but not restricted to, environmental change.

 

All these findings illustrate the dire need to combat climatic changes before surviving in extremities. In a nutshell, Pakistan is facing the consequences. It must develop pre-disaster and post-disaster management policies and create awareness campaigns focusing on the rationale of Environmental Changes. Further, special considerations must be observed for reproductive well-being of both genders, men and women. It would ensure capability in health management and add to the working criteria¡¯s¡¯ of combating climatic changes.