A. Saqlain and J. Fullwood-Thomas
In Pakistan, thousands of people are affected by the impacts of climate change. District Badin (Sindh) is one of the most vulnerable areas, where coastal communities are affected by sea intrusion which has damaged both natural resources and productive assets, such as water resources, cultivable land and associated livelihood opportunities. Insufficient investment in district annual development plans, alongside a lack of information, services and knowledge of adaptation at community level have all contributed to heightening vulnerabilities and exacerbating existing poverty patterns. In summary, natural and human-made hazards and the subsequent risks have made it much harder for the coastal communities of Badin district, especially women, to withstand the impacts of disasters and external shocks.
1 INTRODUCTION
What is the situation in District Badin?
In District Badin, sea intrusion has inundated more than 0.5 million hectares of farmland in the coastal areas, and seawater has intruded as far as 85km up the sweet-water channels downstream. Some of the inundated land has been seriously damaged, and this is having a significant impact on the local population, the majority of whom (65 percent) depend for their livelihoods on catching and drying fish (especially women), and work in small-scale businesses such as fish processing for poultry food. This income source has not only been affected by natural resource degradation but also by changes in fishing regulations and a decrease in fish species over the past decade, due to a rise in temperatures and the cutting of mangroves, meaning that fishing has become an unreliable livelihood source.
As a result of the land degradation caused by sea intrusion, cyclone and tornadoes, the area being used for agricultural production has reduced from 82,200 ha in 2001–2002 to 61,900 ha in 2016, resulting in a decrease in food crops. The population are thus totally dependent on imports of wheat and rice from neighbouring areas. This dependency, and associated issues such as the added cost of transportation, price exploitation and the difficulty preserving stock at household level increases their food insecurity and ultimately their overall vulnerability. Communities are also suffering from extreme shortages of safe drinking water, which increases the care burden for women (they have to walk long distances to fetch water for household consumption and for work) and has resulted in the migration of thousands of people away from the area. One current coping strategy is to engage in informal loan agreements with landlords known as ‘Haris’ for agricultural inputs, food consumption needs, social events and emergencies through monetary advances; however these process are not properly recorded and vulnerable communities risk being trapped in an exploitative, bonded contract.
The Oxfam programme in Pakistan has been working in this area on a climate change adaptation project. As part of this programme, they decided to run a vulnerability and risk analysis assessment (VRA) to further their understanding of the hazards and social issues impacting the community. They generated initial information through focus group discussions (FGD) with communities and then conducted key informant interviews with independent professionals and relevant officials in the district-level government for comparison and verification.