ISLAMABAD: Surging temperatures in Pakistan’s northern areas are causing formation of bigger glacial lakes in the Gilgit-Baltistan region and Chitral district, which are aggravating socio-economic and environmental woes of the mountainous communities, the Climate Change Ministry said on Sunday.
“The country’s northern region is home to over 5,000 glaciers and many of them are melting at a much faster rate because of soaring average temperatures in the mountainous valleys,” Mohammad Saleem, spokesperson for the Climate Change Ministry and environmental educationist, told Arab News.
He added that all-out efforts are under way to mitigate the woes.
“More and more glacial lakes are forming in remote mountain valleys in Gilgi-Baltistan and Chitral district because of warming temperatures. These pose serious risks to the lives and livelihoods of the climate-vulnerable communities,” Saleem said.
“In 2010 there were about 2,400 glacier lakes in Pakistan’s north. Presently, there are over 3,000 glacial lakes, 52 of them in the north on the verge of outburst any time,” he explained.
According to the Ministry of Climate Change, the government, along with its partners, is working on different projects to enhance the food security of the mountain communities in the country’s northern regions and to reduce flood-related hazards caused by deforestation, landslides, land erosion and inefficient water use.
“At least 65,000 women would get training in home gardening, 240 water-efficient farming technologies would be set up and 35,000 hectares of land will be reforested to alleviate the devastating impacts of glacial lake outburst floods,” Saleem highlighted.
