Assessing the impact of climate change induced floods on school education in Pakistan: A case study of South Punjab

Qasim Ali

Authors

Qasim Ali Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Government Graduate College of Science, Wahdat Road, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Author

Keywords:

Climate Change, Vulnerability, Floods, Education, Resilience

Abstract

Climate change is related to long term variations in the earth temperatures and weather pattern. These variations can be due to natural and anthropogenic activities. Floods are the major events of climate change. Therefore, climate change has been posing risks to the global peace and socio-economic development indiscriminately. Pakistan has also been facing this issue continuously. It has been witnessing massive floods whereas 2010 and 2022 floods were the most devastating in its history. None of the sector is immune from it. Qualitative research along with interpretive and explanatory research techniques is used in this study. Secondary sources such as published books, journals, newspaper, etc are used in it. As far as findings are concerned, school education especially in South Punjab is the most vulnerable floods. Educational activities remained suspended for long time because of destruction of school buildings, infrastructure, mass migration and relief camps in the premises of schools. Enrolment decreased whereas dropout ratio increased. Disaster risk reduction strategies and flood resilient schools' building are necessary for carrying smoothly school educational activities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

AAJ News (2010) Flood damaged schools led to education worries [online]. http://www.aaj. tv/2010/08/flood-damaged-schools-lead-to-education-worries/. Accessed 25 May 2025.

Abbasi, M. S. et al; (2021). Climate Induced Migration Among Women.

ADB and WB (2010) Pakistan floods 2010: preliminary damages and needs assessment. ADB and World Bank, Islamabad

Ahmad, D., & Afzal, M. (2024). Assessing climate induced resettlement impacts on livelihood vulnerability in flood-prone areas of Punjab, Pakistan; an application of livelihood vulnerability index.

Ahmad, N. (2024). Enhancing Children Resilience Through Climate Change Education in Pakistan Perspectives of Indigenous Torwali Community Primary School Teachers (Master's thesis).

Akanksha Bapna, & N. P. (2024). The Climate Change- education nexus. Odi.

Aleha, A. et al; (2024). Measuring community disaster resilience in Southern Punjab: a study of 2022 floods in Pakistan. Natural and Applied Sciences International Journal (NASIJ), 5(1), 113-129.

Ali, G., et al; (2009). Climate change: Implications and adaptation of water resources in Pakistan. GCISC-RR-13, global change impact studies Centre (GCISC), Islamabad, Pakistan.

Ali, S. et al; (2019). Assessment of climate extremes in future projections downscaled by multiple statistical downscaling methods over Pakistan. Atmospheric Research, 222, 114-133.

Arijo, N. A. (2022, October 6). The unimaginable blow to education after the floods. The Friday Times.

Aslam, A., & Rana, I. A. (2022). Impact of the built environment on climate change risk perception and psychological distancing: Empirical evidence from Islamabad, Pakistan. Environmental Science & Policy, 127, 228-240.

Aslam, A. Q. et al; (2017). Vulnerability and impact assessment of extreme climatic event: A case study of southern Punjab, Pakistan. Science of the Total Environment, 580, 468-481.

Baqir M, et al; (2012) Infectious diseases in the aftermath of monsoon flooding in Pakistan Asian Pac. J. Trop. Biomed. 2 76–79.

Chang, M. S. et al; (2013). Flood disasters and its impacts on child education in Sindh: a case study of 2010 flood. Int. J. Adv. Res, 1(3), 329-44.

EM_DAT (2015) Disaster Country Profiles: Pakistan, Available from: <http://www.emdat.be/country_profile/index.html> [Accessed: 25 May 2025]

Federal Flood Commission. 2015. “Annual Flood Report 2015.” Office of the Chief Engineering Advisor and Chairman, Federal Flood Commission, Ministry of Water and Power, Government of Pakistan: Islamabad.

Federal Flood Commission (FFC), 2021. Annual Flood Report 2020. Ministry of Water Resources, Islamabad, Pakistan. Available at: https://ffc.gov.pk/wp-content/uplo ads/2021/04/2020-Annual-Report-of-Oo-CEA-CFFC.pdf.

FFC Annual Report, 2007.

Foresight, (2011). Migration and Global Environmental Change: Future Challenges and

Opportunities. Final Project Report, U.K. Government Office for Science, London, UK, 236 pp.

Global Climate Risk Index. (2020). Who suffers most from extreme weather events?

Hamid, S. et al; (2024). Teachers ‘Attitudes & Barriers to Implementing Climate Change Education in Secondary Schools. Journal of Social Sciences Development, 3(3), 116-127.

Hashmi, H. N., et al; (2012). A critical analysis of 2010 floods in Pakistan. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 7(7), 1054-1067.

Hashmi, R. S. (2023). Climate Change and Climate Induced Migration in Pakistan: A Threat to Human Security (The Study of RajanPur and Taunsa Sharif after Flood 2022). Annals of Human and Social Sciences, 4(4), 378-394.

Hussain, M. et al; (2019). Divisional disparities on climate change adaptation and mitigation in Punjab, Pakistan: local perceptions, vulnerabilities, and policy implications. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26, 31491-31507.

Hussain, M., Butt, et al; (2020). A comprehensive review of climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation on environmental and natural calamities in Pakistan. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 192, 1-20.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2014). Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects.

Jamshed, A. (2015). Assessing vulnerability and capacity of flood affected communities in Punjab, Pakistan: Case study: District Jhang and Muzaffargarh (Doctoral dissertation, Universitätsbibliothek der Universität Stuttgart).

Khan, A.N., and A. Ali. 2014. Implication of floods—2010 on education sector in Pakistan. In Disaster recovery: Used or misused development opportunity, ed. R. Shaw, 117–133. Tokyo: Springer.

Khan, R. S., & Zahidi, F. (2024). Pakistan: On The Front Line of Climate Change.

Memon, M. A. (2010). 2010 Top News on the Environment in Asia. Yokohama, Japan: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.

Manzoor, et al; (2022). Floods and flood management and its socio-economic impact on Pakistan: A review of the empirical literature. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10, 2480.

Maplecroft. (2010, October 20). South Asia most at risk from climate change, Scandinavia safest.

Ministry of Climate Change. 2012. National Climate Change Policy. Islamabad: Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan.

National Disaster Management Authority NDMA (2014) Multi-sector initial rapid assessment (MIRA) PDMA/NDMA/HCT Punjab floods. National Disaster Management Authority.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 2022. NDMA Flood 2022 - Daily Situation Report No. 158 - 18 November 2022. Government of Pakistan. Available at: http://www.ndma.gov.pk/sitreps (Accessed 15 April 2025).

Ocha (2010) Pakistan monsoon floods situation report # 16 [online]. http://www.pakresponse. info/sitreps/OCHA_SITREP16_23_August.pdf. Accessed 25 May 2025

PBS, (2021). Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021, Ministry of Finance Islamabad, Government of Pakistan.

Pdma, (2020). Annual Report 2019, Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Government of Punjab, Pakistan.

Rana, I. A. et al; (2020). Characterizing flood risk perception in urban communities of Pakistan. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 46, 101624.

Rose, S. (2023). Rain Rain Go Away. The Pakistan Development Review, 62(3), 437-444.

Salik, K. M. et al; (2020). Climate-induced displacement and migration in Pakistan: Insights from Muzaffargarh and Tharparkar Districts.

Save the Children 2022 (press release) (available at: www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2209/S00013/no-back-to-school-for-thousands-ofchildren-as-nearly-19000-schools-damaged-destroyed-by-floods-in-pakistan.htm)

Setiadi, N. J. et al; (2010). Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation case studies from South and Southeast Asia. UNU-EHS.

Shah, A. A. et al; (2018). Schools’ flood emergency preparedness in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 9, 181-194.

Shahid, Z. & Piracha, A. (2010) Climate Change Impacts in Pakistan: Awareness and Adaptation, The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses 2 (1): 119–130

Springer, A. (2023). The Pakistani Floods of 2022: How Vulnerability is Amplified by Climate Change and Political Policy. Indian Ocean World Centre Working Paper Series, 14.

Sujaya, K. et al; (2023). Educational sustainability: An anthropogenic study in the wake of the 2022 floods in Pakistan. ECNU Review of Education, 20965311231209503.

Ullah, W., & Takaaki, N. (2016). Climate change vulnerability of Pakistan towards natural disasters: a review. International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy, 4(5), 126.

Undp. (2023) Pakistan Floods 2022: Post Disaster Need Assessment Report, United Nations Development Program. https://www.undp.org/pakistan/publications/pakistan-floods-2022-post-disaster-needs-asses sment-pdna

Unicef. (2022). Schools for more than 2 million children in Pakistan remain inaccessible due to devastating floods. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-2-million-children-pakistan-remaininaccessible-due-devastating-floods.

Unicef. (2023) Devastating Floods in Pakistan, 2022. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/ devastating-floods-pakistan-2022. (Accessed May 10, 2025).

Unicef Pakistan. (2024). Education. https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/education.

Wang, et al; (2023). Disaster mapping and assessment of Pakistan’s 2022 mega-flood based on multi-source data-driven approach. Natural Hazards, 1-20.

World Bank. (2018). The Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP). Historical Climate Data (Updated to 2015).

World Bank (2022) Pakistan floods 2022, post-disaster needs assessment, The World Bank Report 2022.

World Bank Group (2022, October 28). Pakistan: Flood damages and economic losses over USD 30 billion and reconstruction needs over USD 16 billion—new assessment. [Press release].

World Health Organization (WHO), n.d., Floods. Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/floods#tab=tab_1 (Accessed 15 April 2025)

Wright, C. et al; (2013). Future imaginings: Organizing in response to climate change. Organization, 20(5), 647-658.

Yaqoob A (2015) Climate change and institutional capacity in the Indus Basin.

Zachariah, M. et al; (2023). Attribution of 2022 early-spring heat wave in India and Pakistan to climate change: lessons in assessing vulnerability and preparedness in reducing impacts. Environmental Research: Climate, 2(4), 045005.