The Overpopulation Threat

By Aisha Tariq
Pakistan is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. In early 1994, the
population of Pakistan was estimated to be 126 million, at that time we were the ninth
most populous country of the world, however, land area wise ranked thirty-second among
nations.
Thus Pakistan has about 2 percent of the world’s population living on less than 0.7
percent of the world’s land. The population growth rate is among the world’s highest,
officially estimated at 3.1 percent per year, but privately thought to be closer to 3.3
percent per year by many planners involved in population programs.
According to the latest surveys Pakistan’s population has reached up to 174.59 Million, if
we internationally weigh against the extensive growth rate in our population; we are
ahead of Russia and very slightly behind Brazil. By the year 2020 it is expected that our
population will reach 208 Million, hence curtailing our current resources. Still we have
20% of our population who is living below international poverty line earning around 1.25
$ per day.
The root cause of overpopulation is the unbalanced growth rate. In third world countries
the basic awareness among the common people is lacking, which is the fundamental
reason of overpopulation. Governments have very few budgets to educate the people all
over the country about the disadvantages of extra ordinary birth rate. In this way majority
of the people remain uneducated regarding the adequate methods of birth control.
Although everyone is facing the resulted problems of overpopulation at individual level
but very few people are aware regarding the proper course of action to respond to this
matter. A very common trend for the people is to move towards cities from villages, in
this way, rural land is remained unused and cities become crowded having high density
of people per square feet. This practice not only affects the efficient operation of the
system in cities but it also makes the governments to neglect the rural lands to develop.
It very badly decreases the agricultural growth, resulting in the drastically over the
economy of the country. When wealth is scarce and consumers are in a large amount,
obviously equity in distribution of resources is always missing. This makes the people
frustrated and outcomes are very frightening, youth which is called as the life blood of a
country starts involving in inappropriate ways to snatch the resources. It increases crime
rate in a big deal, it has been observed that the countries which have balanced population,
crime rate is very low in such regions. When people are not provided with the basic
necessities, it elevates crime rate due to drug cartels and increases theft by people stealing
resources to survive.
After the earthquake of October 11, 2005, that killed 79000 people according to official
death polls. It was discovered that Pakistan is situated on the most dangerous earth plate
which can be affected very badly anytime due to earthquakes. Overpopulation does not
allow the government to establish the cities and villages in a planned and organized way,
in such condition natural disaster management agencies cannot respond to the potential
loss. It is said that earthquakes does not kill the people, mismanagement kills the people
which is the result of overpopulation.
Atmosphere and climate is also badly affected by overpopulation, in overpopulated areas
the consumption of energy goods like, petroleum, electricity and coal is very high, which
results into pollution which eventually affects the climate. Pollution badly influences on
the health of people, and the hospital and other health institutions in Pakistan have very
limited capacity to accommodate the patients.
The latest analysis indicate that in 2007 there were 85 physicians for every 100,000
persons in Pakistan. Alternatively we can say that one doctor is available for 1,225
people. In comparison to most underdeveloped countries, we a have a shortage of nurses
and there are only 62,651 nurses all over the nation who are supplemented with a strong
force of 96,000 Lady Health Workers (primary health care providers).
According to the latest Ministry of Health Pakistan statistics, there were 13,937 health
institutions in the country including 945 hospitals (with a total of 103,285 hospital beds),
4,755 dispensaries, 5,349 Basic Health Units (mostly in rural areas), 903 Mother and
Child Care Centers, 562 rural health centers and 290 TB centers.
When the growth rate is very high, it results in high child mortality, Seventy infants out
of one thousand dies due to different reasons, which are mainly, the inadequate facilities
provided in hospitals due to load of too many delivery cases, vulnerability of the child
due to bad cures, lack of skilled technical staff in hospitals, lack of proper food, and the
most important is the weak health of the mother.
The uncontrollably increasing population is the basic running force of this issue. Poverty
highly increases the child mortality ration, an individual citizen’s poverty results in the
poverty of the whole country. In frenziedly populated countries the life expectancy ratio
is very low, as per the latest statistics Pakistan has 64.6 as life expectancy ratio of an
individual, whereas Japan has 82.3, the difference is very clear.
The major reason behind this considerable gap is the difference between the population
and available resources of these two countries. Overpopulation restrains the literacy in
the country, Pakistan, a developing country, has very few funds and capital for
educational development. It has been 62 years since Pakistan has come into existence;
still our literacy rate is below 50% which is far less than India, Sri lanka, Turkey and
Brazil.
In over occupied areas unclean living conditions which are based upon water resource
reduction, discharge of raw dirt and solid waste disposal increase the chance of the
emergence of new epidemics and pandemics. For many environmental and social
reasons, including overcrowded living conditions, malnutrition and inadequate,
inaccessible, or non-existent health care; the poor are more likely to be exposed to
infectious diseases.
World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11, which aims to elevate
awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing
Council of the United Nations Development Programme, in 1989. It was stimulated by
the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the date on which the world’s
population reached around five billion people.
In current year the subject matter of the world population day is “Investing in Women is a
Smart Choice”. Funding in education and health for women considerably increase output
of the whole mass, farming yields, and state income, all of which adds to the
accomplishment of the balanced Population.
Investments by governments worldwide have boosted school admission rates and
promoted the prevention of lethal diseases like malaria, tuber clauses and HIV Aids. We
expect that this year this convention will bring extra ordinary attentiveness among the
people of Pakistan, and we will ourselves manage out our overpopulation issue by
bringing economy efficiency and effectiveness among the processes and policies.