Climate-smart communities bloom in Pakistan

By Etelka Lehoczky

The farmers of Pakistan’s Indus River Valley contribute little to climate change, yet they are frighteningly vulnerable to it. In the summer of 2022, record-breaking monsoon rains supercharged by warming temperatures deluged the fertile plains where many of them cultivated cotton, rice, and wheat for large landowners. The floods submerged a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing about 8 million.

“We were very badly affected. We lost so many animals — buffalo, cows, and sheep. We also lost crops,” says Sughana Bheel, who was displaced along with her husband, three children, and other surviving residents of the submerged village of Nauabad in the country’s south.

For months, the farmers of Sindh province, many of whom fled to nearby towns and cities, took refuge in tents, schools, or out in the open. Mindful of the role climate change played in the disaster, Pakistan’s Rotary clubs decided to put climate adaptation at the center of their rebuilding efforts. They worked closely with rural communities to incorporate renewable energy and indigenous building techniques and materials.

Bheel and the other residents of Nauabad learned about the plans and approached a Rotary club in the area. “They came and surveyed the village, and the landlord gave the land to establish a new village,” Bheel says through an interpreter. “Now, in the current rainy season, our cattle and livestock are safe.”

Known as the Smart Villages project, this reconstruction effort started with finding locations less susceptible to flooding. In addition to climate-resilient building plans and steps to ease flooding, the project follows low-emission construction practices and includes a broad array of new amenities such as internet connectivity. The program, supported by about 45 Rotary clubs throughout Pakistan and some in other countries, was the idea of architect and Past Rotary Director Muhammad Faiz Kidwai.

“I had always believed that when tragedies happen, we get very emotionally involved in the first stage — the relief stage. But life actually begins when that stage is over,” Kidwai says. “Keeping in view the fact that the flooding was due to climate change, I started thinking, ‘Let’s do something which is sustainable, and where we can really contribute in terms of climate change as well.’ And so, I started developing a model.”

Since then, 12 Smart Villages have been built, and plans are in place to construct 13 more by the end of 2025. What makes these villages “smart”? They have encircling mud walls, wooded areas, and channel drainage to divert floodwaters. Clean water is supplied by solar-powered wells, rainwater harvesting, and check dams. Every two homes share an eco-toilet. Solar panels provide electricity to common areas and water treatment facilities and allow internet connectivity. Rotary members have negotiated agreements with internet providers and a medical university to set up online health services. And the villages were constructed using climate-friendly materials and methods.

An audacious effort

“I joined Rotary in 1984, and in my whole Rotary career, I have never seen the likes of this program,” says Rais Ahmed Khan, a past governor of District 3271 and a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Mirpurkhas, who is a district chair for the Smart Villages project. “Rotary provided the opportunity, and the Rotarians did the whole thing with the villagers in the affected areas.”

The Smart Villages also give female residents new ways to earn money — an important initiative in a country where women in rural areas participate in the workforce at higher rates than women in urban areas. Each village has a workshop where women can embroider cloth and make other items to sell. Bheel’s village got 25 sewing machines and six months’ worth of fabric. “With all the other things Rotary did, they did some things to improve the economy also,” Bheel says.

The program has provided homes to around 1,200 people so far, but its overall impact is broader. Smart Villages provide a paradigm for addressing two major concerns related to climate change: making building practices more eco-friendly and preventing mass migration. Courtesy of Muhammad Faiz Kidwai

The project cost around $325,000 and was funded through a mix of direct donations and grants, including disaster response grants from The Rotary Foundation’s Pakistan Flood Response Fund. The Rotary members formed partnerships with several organizations and businesses, including the Saylani Welfare International Trust and the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan. Constructing the homes in the first village took about eight months, but with practice, the builders were soon able to complete this phase in three to four months. Still, there were many problems to solve along the way.

“One of the biggest challenges was securing permission and allocating ownership from the property owners,” says Shakeel Kaim Khani, governor-elect of District 3271 and a member of the Rotary Club of Samaro. Kaim Khani was among several Rotary members who donated land to build on.

“The lack of proper access roads and damaged infrastructure made it difficult to transport materials and personnel to the locations, hindering our progress,” Kaim Khani adds. “Also, the absence of pure water sources presented significant challenges. We implemented water treatment solutions to address water scarcity and quality issues.”

The program has provided homes to around 1,200 people so far, but its overall impact is much broader. Smart Villages provide a paradigm for addressing two major concerns related to climate change: making building practices more eco-friendly and preventing mass migration from rural areas.

Sustaining rural livelihoods

There’s a growing movement of builders and city planners around the world calling for more sustainable building practices. Building construction and operations are responsible for more than a third of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions each year, and the manufacture of cement and concrete alone generates up to 9 percent of all annual CO2 emissions. In contrast, rural building practices in the developing world are often climate friendly.

“True sustainable knowledge exists in rural areas,” says Ming Hu, an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture and author of Green Building Costs: The Affordability of Sustainable Design. “Once we start trying to be ‘high tech,’ we tend to put away practices that are actually very good in terms of sustainability.”

Kidwai sought out indigenous materials and practices when designing the Smart Village buildings. They’re constructed from locally available materials like mud, lime, and bamboo. In areas without bamboo, Rotarians planted it for later use.

The program also has a different kind of sustainability in mind: sustaining rural lifestyles. By improving rural people’s standards of living, Kidwai argues, Smart Villages will allow them to remain on their land instead of moving to cities.

“The Smart Villages program will not just bring environmental sustainability in villages, but will also help in deurbanization,” Kidwai says. “If we can provide a better quality of life in villages, there will be no reason for immigrants to leave their loved ones and come to urban centers in search of livelihood.”

Such migration can put a strain on cities, increase greenhouse gas emissions, and result in worse hardships for those who leave their homes. To try to prevent this, experts around the world are putting their own spins on the idea of “smart villages.” The Smart Villages Research Group, based in the United Kingdom, focuses on rural access to electricity.

“Studies have been carried out to discern whether young people would stay in their villages if better facilities became available,” says Brian Heap, one of the UK initiative’s originators. “In nearly every case it turns out that they would, because that is their family base.”

In the Rotary clubs’ Smart Villages, even the building process was a family affair. Bheel was particularly happy that she and her relatives were able to construct their new homes themselves.

“No one borrowed any labor. We and our family members established and built these houses,” she says. “Now our children and our families are safe.”

This story originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.