The coronavirus pandemic left no choice for Pakistan but to go into lockdown on 23 March 2020. But the government quickly hired the thousands of workers left jobless by the pandemic to plant billions of trees across the country. Tanzia Haq reports.
In a move that spared thousands from begging on the streets and from starving, the Pakistan government spent $46m to create more than 60,000 jobs for unskilled laborers to plant trees across the country as part of the ’10 Billion Tree Tsunami’ project.
The project was first started in 2014 as part of Pakistan’s climate change initiative. Pakistan is ranked 5th among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The project was halted when the coronavirus first struck to implement social distancing measures but was later resumed in April. More than 14,880 people in Pakistan have been infected by the coronavirus.
Climate change advisor to the prime minister, Malik Amin Aslam, said the project has employed triple the amount of workers it did in 2014. Many of the workers are from rural areas, especially women and laid off workers. The workers are paid between 500-800 rupees ($3-5) a day, which sustains them with basic necessities.
The workers have to follow mandatory social distancing rules and have their masks on while working. What could have been a tragic situation for thousands of people got transformed into an opportunity that benefited climate change efforts in Pakistan, which, despite being the 5th most vulnerable country to global warming, produces a small fraction of global greenhouse gases.
