ISLAMABAD: The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Project-II launched in 18 disaster-prone districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) has helped in increasing vegetative cover to 700 hectares in these areas.
Experts told media on Friday that 960 destructive outburst floods occurred in KP and GB in last 20 years. Expert Khan Faraz from Hayatabad, Peshawar informed that now 15 districts are vulnerable to GLOF including Chitral, Upper Dir, Swat, Kohistan and Mansehra in KP and Skardu, Kharmang, Gilgit, Hunza, Diamer, Shigar, Ghanche, Ghizer, Nagar and Astore districts in GB.
The monitoring teams are keeping an eye on changes in the lakes to save lives and livelihoods of the mountain communities and usher in climate-resilient infrastructures and improved GLOFs warning systems.
The work on glacier grafting is also being done to help meet the water requirements of the mountain communities, besides improving local irrigation systems. The construction of flood protection walls is under way and local volunteers are also showing their interest in execution of this project.
The lives and livelihood of mountain communities are grappled with growing risk of flash floods and GLOFs due to rapidly melting glaciers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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