'Climate Change Causing Mass Migrations In Pakistan'

Ministry of Climate Change spokesman Muhammad Saleem has said that climate change has resulted in mass migrations in Pakistan, with more than two million people being displaced by the floods that wreaked havoc in the country in 2010.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, the ministry’s spokesman said that the floods of 2010 had triggered a mass migration from rural areas to cities.

Saleem further said that out of the two million people that had been displaced, 70 percent had not returned to their hometowns and had permanently settled in the cities to make a living. The reason, he stated, was that their homes and farmlands had been destroyed because of the floods.



The ministry’s spokesman stated that droughts and floods had caused seasonal, long-term and permanent migrations in southern, southwestern, and northeastern Pakistan in the last 10 years.

Saleem also revealed that about 700,000 people had migrated to cities from rural Pakistan annually on long-term and permanent basis.



Moreover, the spokesman also said that Pakistan was losing $4 billion every year due to climate change disasters.

Saleem cited a report by the Climate Change Ministry that said Pakistan had lost $80billion from 1996 to 2016 as a result of climate change disasters.

Pakistan has also been placed at the fifth position on the list of countries most likely to face disastrous consequences of climate change by the Global Climate Risk Index for 2020.

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