By Hammad Hassan
Islamabad, Pakistan
In the blistering heat of Jacobabad — now infamous as one of the hottest places on Earth — 11-year-old Mehwish waits her turn outside a mosque, holding an empty bottle. Her school's water pump stopped working weeks ago. Temperatures regularly hover above 50°C (122°F). There's no shade in the classroom, and no clean water to drink.
"Sometimes I feel so thirsty, I can't even remember what the teacher says," she murmurs, her uniform stained with dust and sweat.
Across Pakistan, the climate crisis is no longer an abstract threat. It's already shaping the daily lives — and futures — of millions of children. From dried-up taps in urban slums to flood-ravaged classrooms in rural Sindh, young Pakistanis are on the frontlines of a rapidly accelerating environmental emergency. And yet, they are being left completely unprepared.
"A Water Crisis Generations in the Making"
Pakistan is on the brink of a full-blown water crisis. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) warned that the country would reach "absolute water scarcity" by 2025 — defined by the UN as less than 500 cubic meters per person annually. That grim threshold has now arrived.
Yet the impact is not evenly felt. In the slums of Karachi Lahore or Pakistan, families often survive on a single bucket a day, while elsewhere, water is siphoned off by illegal tanker mafias or wasted through leaky infrastructure. In rural Punjab, children miss school to fetch water. In Balochistan, the wells are going dry altogether.
A recent UNICEF report found that only 36 percent of households have access to safely managed drinking water, with rural areas faring significantly worse. Children bear the brunt — suffering dehydration, waterborne disease, stunted growth, and missed education.
"When a child doesn't have clean water, their entire life is affected," says Dr. Sameena Tariq, a pediatrician in southern Punjab. "Their immunity weakens, their brain development is compromised, and their ability to learn is diminished."
"School Without Water — or Answers"
But beyond the physical threat, there's an intellectual and emotional void too. In a country devastated by climate shocks — from deadly floods to heatwaves — climate change remains all but absent from the classroom.
In government schools across Pakistan, climate education is not part of the national curriculum. Teachers are not trained, textbooks are outdated, and most students can't articulate the reasons behind the chaos unfolding around them.
Twelve-year-old Junaid, displaced twice by floods in Sindh, puts it plainly: "We don't know why the water keeps coming or why the heat keeps getting worse. No one tells us."
Pakistan ranks among the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries globally, yet its children are growing up without the tools to understand, let alone adapt to, the world they're inheriting.
A study published in Science revealed that children born today will face seven times more heatwaves, three times more river floods, and twice the droughts than their grandparents — unless drastic emissions cuts are made. In Pakistan, where emissions are relatively low but vulnerability is high, the injustice is staggering.
Learning to Survive the Future experts argue that integrating climate education into Pakistan's school system is not just important — it's urgent.
"Children in Pakistan don't need climate theory, they need practical survival skills," says environmental educator Shazia Nisar, who works with schools in flood-prone areas. "How to conserve water, how to recognize early signs of heatstroke, how to evacuate in a disaster — these are life lessons now."
Some pilot programs in Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan have started introducing climate resilience modules, but coverage is patchy and underfunded. Meanwhile, the disconnect between children's daily realities and their education continues to grow.
In 2022, record-breaking monsoon floods displaced over 33 million people — nearly half of them children. The 2025 monsoon season is once again triggering displacement in parts of D.G. Khan, Khairpur, and Swat. Yet in most classrooms, there is still no mention of climate adaptation, environmental justice, or mental health support for trauma-affected youth.
Pakistan's environmental collapse is not happening in isolation. It is part of a global crisis of inaction — but one that punishes the poorest and youngest the hardest.
For Mehwish in Jacobabad, for Junaid in Sindh, and for millions like them, the future is being shaped by decisions they did not make, disasters they did not cause, and a silence they do not deserve.
Resilience is often romanticized in climate narratives, but in Pakistan, resilience has become a euphemism for neglect. Children are expected to endure the unendurable, without water, without knowledge, and without a say in what happens next.
As Pakistan's taps run dry and its skies grow hotter, the world must ask itself What happens when a generation grows up knowing only thirst — and never truth?
Mr. Hammad Hassan is a journalist and media strategist, affiliated with HUM News.