Environment Of Pakistan Huma Naz Sethi [updated] May 2026

Unlike technocrats who focus solely on policy, Sethi’s write-ups and advocacy focus on implementation failure . She critiques how Pakistan’s environmental policies (like the Pakistan Climate Change Act) often look impressive on paper but fail to reach the mazdoor (laborer) or the rural peasant. Her work in governance reform (through the Aurat Foundation and the National Commission on the Status of Women ) pushed for environmental impact assessments to include "human displacement" metrics—ensuring that development projects like dams or urban sprawl don't simply push the poor into more vulnerable flood zones.

The catastrophic floods of 2022 validated Sethi’s warnings. While the world saw water, Sethi saw the collapse of the "human environment." She wrote extensively on how deforested hillsides and encroached riverbeds—caused by elite land grabbing and poor urban planning—turned a climate event into a man-made massacre. Her focus was not on the water volume, but on the lack of early warning systems, collapsed latrines, and the subsequent maternal health crisis in tent cities. environment of pakistan huma naz sethi

Sethi has long argued that in Pakistan, environmental degradation is a feminist issue. Through her seminal work with Bedari (a NGO focused on women’s development and health), she highlighted how resource scarcity—specifically water and clean fuel—disproportionately affects women. In rural Punjab and Sindh, where water tables are dropping due to over-extraction and climate irregularity, Sethi documented how women walk miles daily, sacrificing their health and education. For Sethi, the "environment" is the kitchen filled with smoke from wood fires; it is the parched land that dictates a girl’s right to go to school. Unlike technocrats who focus solely on policy, Sethi’s