ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s climate change minister, Senator Sherry Rehman, on Thursday warned that the South Asian country was once again at risk of experiencing flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) due to high temperatures in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Gilgit-Baltistan areas.
Devastating floods triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains in June 2022 killed at least 1,700 people, and destroyed millions of homes and livestock in Pakistan. The disaster affected 33 million people and washed away swathes of agricultural land. According to the Pakistani government, the destruction cost the cash-strapped country losses worth $30 billion.
Estimates by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) say that around 20 million people, including 9 million children, still need humanitarian aid in flood-affected areas.
“With temperatures in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa expected to be 4-6 degrees higher than normal, the risk of flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) is on the rise,” Rehman wrote in a Twitter post on Thursday.
“District administrations, local organizations, and communities must remain vigilant and take precautionary measures, especially during the upcoming week, coinciding with Eid ul Azha. Let's prioritize safety.”
Pakistan is home to more glaciers than any other country outside the polar region while last year, over 30 GLOF incidents displaced thousands of people, the minister added.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index (2021), Pakistan was ranked the eighth most vulnerable country in the world to long-term climate risk.
Earlier this week, a new assessment report by an eight-nation environmental conservation organization revealed that the impact of global warming on glaciers, snow, and permafrost of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, including mountains in Pakistan, was “unprecedented and largely irreversible”.
The report said that the melting of glaciers, floods, and landslides in the HKH region, including Pakistan, was projected to increase over the coming decades, with slow-onset hazards such as sedimentation and erosion, and fast-onset hazards such as GLOFs occurring often concurrently in the same catchments.
“Two hundred glacier lakes across the HKH are deemed dangerous, and the region could see a significant spike in GLOF risk by the end of the century,” it said.
“Coupled with increased population growth and economic activity in the region, exposure to these hazards poses the risk of increased loss and damage, including population displacement.”