Need to resolve GLOF issue stressed

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Environment, Wajid Ali Khan said on Saturday that the Ministry of Disaster Management with the help of UNDP should try its best to resolve the issue of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) at the earliest. The minister was addressing a group of experts from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who attended orientation workshop on "Reducing Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacier Lake Outburst Floods in Northern Pakistan" to minimise the risks of glacial lake outburst floods.
He opined that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has made its top priority to mitigate natural hazards that had caused enormous problems for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was pleased to appreciate the timely action of the Ministry of National Disaster Management with the assistance of UNDP and Adaptation Fund.
He further said that the global warming in the region was greater than any other region in the world, which was increasingly becoming obvious since 2009. Few avalanches, massive landslide, floods and cloud burst during last decade in Pakistan and now an imminent threat of glacial lake outburst flooding has further compounded the challenge of adaptation to climate change, which makes it mandatory for the government to take measures to minimise the risks of losses to the property, livestock and infrastructure.
Representative of UNDP Bilal Ali Qureshi said that UNDP realises the urgency of adaptation to climate change and had been supporting various projects in Gilgit Baltistan and KP to this effect since 1996. To name a few projects, Mountain Area Conservancy Project (MACP), Pakistan Wetlands Programme (PWP) and Promotion of Energy Efficiency in Cooking & Heating (PEECH) have played a critical role in improving the ecological health and living conditions of the people. Director National Project, Mujtaba Hussain iterated that the main objectives of the project are to develop the human and technical capacity of public institutions to understand and address immediate GLOF risks for vulnerable communities in northern Pakistan and to enable vulnerable local communities in northern areas of Pakistan to better understand and respond to GLOF risks and thereby adapt to growing climate change pressures.