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KARACHI: At least 43 farmers from Pakistan’s southern Sindh province have issued formal legal notices to German energy giant RWE and cement-producer Heidelberg Materials, claiming €1 million in compensation for losses suffered during catastrophic floods in 2022, trade union officials said on Saturday.

The notices, dispatched on Oct. 28 and serving as a precursor to legal action planned for Dec. unless a settlement is reached, represent one of the first attempts by agriculturalists in Pakistan to hold major international carbon-emitting firms accountable for climate-driven damage.

Pakistan ranks among countries most vulnerable to climate change, despite contributing less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, the country witnessed deadly floods that killed over 1,700 people, displaced another 33 million and caused more than 30 billion losses.

Pakistani officials have said that they had to take loans to rebuild areas devastated by adverse weather phenomena, lamenting a lack of cooperation by heavily industrialized, developed nations which they say have exacerbated the climate crisis in the world.

“The farmers from Sindh have sent a legal notice to RWE and Heidelberg to pay fair share of compensation of what we estimate as €1 million in damages,” said Nasir Mansoor, general secretary of the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) in Pakistan.

The farmers are based in Jacobabad, Dadu and Larkana districts of Sindh, a region among the hardest hit in the 2022 floods.

Speaking at a press conference this week, farmers, civil-society representatives and their legal counsel outlined the basis of their €1 million claim, saying RWE and Heidelberg Materials had been significant contributors to human-induced climate change.

“RWE and Heidelberg have known for decades that their polluting practices would bring harm to people, yet they have refused to act,” Clara Gonzales of the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) addressed press conference.

The NTUF and local non-government organization HANDS Welfare Foundation, which have worked with Sindh farmers since 2010, as well as the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) are backing the claimants, emphasizing that legal action marks an emerging front in global climate-justice litigation.

Neither RWE nor Heidelberg Materials responded to Arab News’ requests for comment by the time of this story’s publication. RWE is one of Europe’s largest electricity producers, while Heidelberg Materials is a leading cement manufacturer globally, both identified in “carbon majors” studies as significant historical emitters.

“Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the political disaster has turned into a climate disaster,” said Karin Zennig, a climate-justice campaigner at the Medico International aid agency.

“Entire regions of the world are still experiencing substantial destruction to their livelihoods. Those least responsible for the climate crisis are struggling to survive, as we can see in Pakistan.”

‘DREAMS WENT UNDER WITH THE WATER’

Inayat Laghari, one of the claimants who is a farmer in Khairpur Nathan Shah, said his entire 12-acre rice crop was destroyed in the 2022 floods, followed by a failed wheat harvest.

“It wasn’t just a crop that was lost; it was our children’s needs, their dreams, and our livelihood for the whole year that went under with the water,” he said.

A father of eight children, including three daughters, Laghari also lost multiple cows and goats to the catastrophic deluges.

“My cousin, Asyia, couldn’t cope with her loss, she passed away from the shock,” he said, recalling the toll the disaster took on his extended family.

“The foundations of the climate crisis that caused this catastrophe were laid by big corporations. They should be the ones to compensate us for our losses.”

The legal notice sent to RWE and Heidelberg Materials seeks acknowledgment of liability and payment of what the claimants describe as their “fair share” of damages. Lawyers acting for the farmers estimate the total damages at about €1 million and say the December timeline will see the case filed in court if no settlement is reached.

Ghulam Ullah from the village of Deed Sharif in Dadu is among the landowners who suffered losses and is now one of the claimants. A father of four sons and four daughters, he had cultivated rice on 24 acres, cotton on 12 acres, and chili on 2 acres, all of which were not only destroyed in the floods but also could not be replanted the following year. He also suffered heavy losses of livestock.

“The floods took everything from us,” he told Arab News. “It is our right that we be compensated for our losses.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday reopened the Torkham border crossing in its northwest for the return of Afghan refugees, local administration said, though trade between the two countries remains suspended through the border terminal since last month’s deadly clashes.

Pakistan and Afghanistan engaged in fierce fighting on Oct. 11 after Islamabad hit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan-affiliated targets in airstrikes in Afghanistan. Afghanistan said the attacks were a violation of its sovereignty.

The clashes caused border closures between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Torkham in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Chaman in the southwestern Balochistan province, effectively halting trade and the movement of people between the two countries.

However, authorities reopened the Torkham border crossing for the voluntary return of Afghan refugees to their country for a day on Saturday, according to Mohammad Anas, a spokesman for the deputy commissioner in Pakistan’s Khyber district.

“Afghan refugees are present at Torkham and efforts will be made today to ensure the voluntary return of all refugees,” he told The Independent’s Urdu service.

In its report last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that more than 1.6 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan have returned to Afghanistan.

Pakistan had decided in 2023 to deport refugees who did not have the necessary documents. Later, it decided that Afghan nationals with Proof of Registration (POR) cards or Afghan Citizen Cards will also be deported to Afghanistan. Around 75 percent of those returning from Pakistan were refugees who did not have travel documents, the report said.

A statement issued by the information department of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, which is adjacent to Torkham, said the border has been reopened for refugees on Saturday only.

The border will be closed for other commercial traffic and passengers, it added.

Pakistan is a key exporter of goods, mainly fresh fruits, rice, flour and other edible items to Afghanistan, while it imports dry fruits and other scrap material from the country.

According to officials of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, around 3,000 containers have been stuck on both sides of Torkham and Chaman crossings, containing various goods.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, this week told Khyber News that there are also Pakistani containers on the Afghan side that are loaded with goods brought from Central Asia.

“Politics and trade should be kept separate because this is causing financial losses to traders on both sides of the border and the goods in the containers are getting spoiled,” he was quoted as saying.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused the administration in Kabul of failing to take action against militant outfits such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which it alleges carry out attacks targeting Pakistan from Afghan soil. Kabul denies the allegations.

These attacks have caused repeated clashes between Pakistani and Afghan border forces, triggering frequent border closures. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire in Doha on Oct. 19 which was extended on Thursday. Officials from the two countries are due to meet in Istanbul on Nov. 6 to firm up the truce and finalize a mechanism to keep militancy along their 2,600-kilometer porous border in check.