Desertification and its fallout
Thursday, 18 Jun, 2009
‘CONSERVING land and water’ was the dominant theme of this year’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, an event that was observed across the globe on Wednesday. Desertification — the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas — is a growing problem in Pakistan and could assume catastrophic proportions if current trends continue. Here’s what the government’s Sustainable Land Management Project has to say: the livelihoods of two-thirds of the population are linked to arid or semi-arid areas, which comprise nearly 80 per cent of the country’s total land mass. And according to other environment ministry estimates, 38 per cent of Pakistan’s irrigated land has been lost to waterlogging while soil productivity has diminished elsewhere because of higher salinity and sodicity levels. Much of the blame can be pinned on poor water management and destructive agricultural practices such as over-cultivation, excessive use of pesticides and run-off from unlevelled farmland that pollutes water bodies and causes soil erosion. Reduced water flows also play a part. Besides affecting crop yields, an acute lack of irrigation water can lead to fields being left barren and thereby susceptible to wind erosion. Other factors include a growing number of livestock and resultant overgrazing, deforestation, erratic weather associated with climate change and rising salinity due to sea intrusion.
Loss of arable land and grazing grounds affects livelihoods and the worst hit may have no option but to migrate, increasing stress on land and water resources in other areas and possibly triggering a new cycle of degradation. Growing pressure on shrinking resources also carries with it the potential for conflict between communities and even nations. Already there are some 24 million ‘environmentally induced migrants’ across the world and the UN estimates that their number could reach 200 million by 2050. The outlook for Pakistan is particularly bleak given that the glaciers that feed the Indus, the country’s agricultural lifeline,
may disappear in another 50 years if global warming continues apace. Migration induced by environmental degradation is on the rise here and the ranks of the poor are growing. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon put it, “the poor will be the first victims [of desertification] and the last to recover.”
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Handshake in Russia
Thursday, 18 Jun, 2009
THE leaders of India and Pakistan shook hands again, this time in Yekaterinburg on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. As in 2004 when their predecessors’ encounter at the Saarc summit in Kathmandu had launched the composite dialogue between their two countries, the meeting between President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to revive the moribund peace process. Four rounds of the dialogue had been held until last year. But the Mumbai terrorist attacks last November stalled the exercise. It is therefore a happy development that New Delhi and Islamabad have decided to reopen communications and discuss issues at the negotiating table. The foreign secretaries will meet before the NAM summit, scheduled in July, where Mr Zardari and Mr Manmohan Singh will review the prospects for talks. These meetings might appear to be more procedural in nature. Nevertheless they will be important as they will set the tone of the dialogue in the months to come. If they have a positive impact on the atmospherics of the talks these encounters would have been worth their while.
The only caveat is that this will entail further delays before the interlocutors begin to address substantive issues in earnest. The problem with setbacks such as the one caused by Mumbai is that they take the peace process back to square one that requires the two sides to start from the beginning. For instance at Yekaterinburg both the leaders took their time to reiterate their stated positions. India wants greater cooperation in good faith from Pakistan in investigating cases of terrorism against it. Pakistan expects the Kashmir dispute to be addressed as a result of this exercise. Both know that these objectives can be achieved only after a confidence-building exercise has created some measure of trust between them. To revive the dialogue after an impasse can be quite a challenge and invariably requires the friendly intervention of friends — the US on the present occasion.
When India and Pakistan meet again they would do well to focus on the key problem that threatens the peace and stability of South Asia i.e. terrorism which has grave implications for the future of both countries, given the fact that terrorists recognise no international boundaries in their operations. It is important that neither government provide any kind of sanctuary to terrorists operating against the other in the misplaced belief that this strategy promotes its political interest. It is time both realised that terrorism is a double-edged sword that also destroys its protector and patron. Hence the Saarc mechanism that has already been set up to investigate and fight terrorism must be activated and used effectively to the advantage of both.
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Unrealistic Punjab budget?
Thursday, 18 Jun, 2009
PRUDENCE demanded that Punjab prepare a cautious budget for the financial year 2009-10 and attempt to achieve its priority development goals while living within realistic financial means over the next one year. But the provincial government did not take that road, perhaps believing that it must follow populist policies even if it were short on cash to finance its development budget. Here is a classic case of passing the buck: the federal government’s budget for fiscal 2009-10 is dependent on the aid it expects from abroad while Punjab pins its hopes on the centre. The province’s development package of Rs175bn for the next year is already facing a resource gap of more than Rs26bn. This could fall apart if the federal government fails to collect the targeted tax revenue to transfer the promised funds — Rs421bn in Punjab’s case — to the provinces under the NFC award. Analysts predict that the Federal Bureau of Revenue will not be able to meet its tax collection target, just as it was unable to do so during the outgoing fiscal, not least because of sluggish economic conditions and the even slower industrial recovery.
The tax revenue target of Rs49.6bn, too, appears to be unrealistic, particularly because it has been increased from just over Rs28bn collected during the outgoing year and without imposing any new tax or even revising upwards the existing tax rates. This means that a possible financial crunch could result in development targets going topsy-turvy in no time because of the lack of money to finance schemes. It could also force the provincial government to borrow money from commercial banks. The worst scenario is a financial crisis without a contingency plan.
That said the provincial government must be commended for increasing allocation for pro-poor subsidies — cash transfers to poor families, provision of sasti roti, subsidised tractors for farmers, etc — to a whopping Rs30bn. The efficacy of these schemes had remained open to question until now, though, as these were initiated by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to counter the impact of similar schemes launched by the PPP government at the centre: the Benazir Income Support Programme and the Benazir Tractor Scheme. To improve on its current reputation of being a provider of relief to target groups, the provincial government must extend the scope of these subsidies to include areas of the province where people voted for its coalition partner PPP and the PML-Q in last year’s election.
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OTHER VOICES - Middle East Press To plan for retirement
Thursday, 18 Jun, 2009
IN these difficult economic times, people across the world are digging into their savings to cover their daily living costs, leaving them ill-prepared for retirement at the end of their working lives. A survey of 15,000 people across the world by HSBC Insurance revealed that 87 per cent have no idea how much money they will have when they retire, leaving only 13 per cent feeling well prepared for [retirement]….
The survey showed that, across the world, people have a poor understanding of how to save for retirement and lack access to good financial advice. This is a strong argument for governments to [encourage] financial education…. In many countries like the UAE, governments have programmes in place to take care of … retired citizens…. However, this will become more difficult as populations age….
Everybody has the responsibility to make sure they are able to take care of their financial needs later in life… For those who are young … it may seem as though there are still many years ahead to get ready for retirement. But the uncomfortable truth is that you have to start saving for your old age as soon as you start earning…. — (June 12)
PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration … that he would accept the principle of the creation of a “demilitarised Palestinian state beside the Jewish state” was a small step in the right direction, despite being abominably late in coming….
His new position further validates the two-state solution which is accepted by the majority of the Israeli public…. Netanyahu needs to ask himself if his stubborn resistance to a Palestinian state prior to Sunday contributed to Israel’s national interests, or if it was only a desperate attempt to buy time…. The prime minister also needs to explain to the public why he waited three months and got involved in a public and unnecessary confrontation with President Barack Obama before he became willing to state the obvious.Netanyahu’s test will be to translate the speech into a practical policy: was its purpose to fend off US pressure at a minimum price without upsetting his coalition partners to the right? Or did it represent an ideological change in direction…. Netanyahu skipped past the first hurdle of his second tenure as prime minister when he received praise from Obama for the speech, but that is only one small step. The burden of proof is still on him. — (June 16)