THE monsoon clouds that break over Pakistan every year bring death and devastation. Deadly floods have become an annual ritual. Roads drown. Crops are inundated. People die. The Hilal-i- Ahmer representative in Buner told me: “We have run out of shrouds.” And yet, year after year, Pakistan’s response doesn’t go beyond the usual, ie, emergency aid, military helicopters, donations, photo ops and prayers — followed by radio silence until the next year.

This cycle of death won’t be broken by charity but by skill and enforcement. Specifically, by giving a new generation of Pakistanis revitalised technical vocational education and training (TVET) and strictly enforcing measures against encroachment. We can’t stop the rains but we can build better defences and rebuild greener. For all of this, we need skilled people who know how to work with nature, not against it.

Pakistan is among the top 10 countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Monsoon patterns are shifting, glaciers are melting faster. But vulnerability isn’t only about nature. It is about how we build our homes, how much we encroach and how we manage our rivers and grow our food. Our rural infrastructure is outdated, cities have poor drainage and........

© Dawn