‘Moving People’- Environmental health and migration
“The rains came in the middle of the night, while most people were sleeping. When we woke up, there was water of about 2–3 feet, and we did not know how to escape it, because our village is far from the main road. The water was very dirty because the floods had damaged our sanitation and water facilities. I was pregnant at that time. Did not know what to do with our livestock. We were rescued by the Army and other civil society organizations. Now, we are trying to rebuild our livelihood by starting from the beginning.”
- Fatay and Zulaikar, a pastoral couple in Badin district, Pakistan.
Pakistan is highly exposed to impacts of such major environmental changes. Floods and natural disasters account for large scale migration within Pakistan. It has a significantly large IDP (Internally Displaced Persons’) population accounting for 8% of the Worlds’ total IDP population.
Environment, health and migration can each be defined in a number of ways which will open up different lines of enquiry. Environmental change on a global level amplifies human migration. In this 21st century, there has been an increased prevalence of environmental migration i.e. an adaptive response to the climate change in terms of livelihood vulnerability. Environmental changes associated with increase in greenhouse concentrations such as flooding, drought etc. These changes shape human migration actively through their interaction with other political, economic and social drivers of mobility. The role of environmental degradation and climate change is a potential driver of migration in contemporary times. The environmental impact on health may be direct or indirect, localized or broad in scope, immediate or delayed, visible independently or in combination with other behavioural factors.
Migration related to environmental change includes migration to urban areas, cross-border migration, forced displacement following environmental disaster, and planned relocation from a place of environmental vulnerability. Environmental related migration has potentially positive and negative health effects and well-being consequences for the host and home communities.
The human experience of environmental change as a ‘driver’ of migration and its potential impacts on health include psychosocial health, food insecurity, lack of adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities, environmental risks and associated diseases. Having said that, however, the health impacts are not isolated events but a result of host of other factors including demography and social-economic status of the affected population. The cost, network and political context of migration are also important considerations in this aspect.
Thus, environmental changes of significant intensity can expose individuals, communities, humanitarian actors to a variety of diseases. Crisis situations leave these people vulnerable to the issues emerging from the environmental health risks. Adequate health response in such cases is therefore nothing but Migration to environmentally safer areas.
