Pakistan: Project underway to alleviate harms of flooding in hilly districts
By Khalid Kheshgi
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The visit was facilitated by an organisation working for raising awareness about the risk and devastation of glacial lakes outburst floods (Glof) in Chitral and four other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The project is jointly funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Green Climate Fund. “This is the second phase of Glof in Chitral and adjacent Gilgit-Baltistan where the local communities are helped to identify and manage risks associated with the outburst floods and other related impacts of the climate change,” said Fahad Bangash, provincial coordinator of Glof-11 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He added that all the 10 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan and four KP districts including Chitral, Upper Dir, Swat and Manserha are included in the Glof project and steps were being taken for scaling up community-based early warning system and long-term measures for adaptive capacity.
The melting of glaciers poses a more immediate threat as it forms lakes which overrun their capacity, causing outburst floods. Many villages and towns located in the vicinity of the glaciers are most vulnerable to these floods and the inhabitants face constant risks due to the climatic phenomenon.
Fahad Bangash said that some 7,000 glaciers are located in Pakistan, of which over 5,000 are counted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. He added that there are more than 3,000 glacial lakes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, including about 33 identified as potentially hazardous.
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