Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink
Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner
Predictions that the Global North would cynically turn its back on Climate refugees as drought, heatwaves and floods decimate the population of the Global South this week appear both reasonable and prescient. As I write this in my comfortable home in the pleasant evening of an Australian spring with a belly full of warm soup, 30 million Pakistanis seek shelter from 35 degree heat and 66% humidity without roads, rooves, freshwater or sanitation. The thousand people who have died during 8 weeks of torrential down pour now confront thirst, starvation and disease and, those who survive, a daunting rebuilding operation that affects literally millions of devastated homes, and thousands of kilometres of road. In addition, a sizable fraction of the nation’s infrastructure has been torn asunder as glacial lakes burst out of their mountain strongholds and joined the petalitres of water that has fallen from eight separate monsoon events far into the northern regions of the Indus valley.
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