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Sept-24-2021; WEForum executive committee member Dr. Ghulam Rasul participated in an International virtual event on Glaciers.

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Sept-08-2021; Nisar A. Memon welcomed and chaired a session in a webinar on ‘Sea level rise and coastal climate risks in Pakistan’ co-hosted by the Water Environment Forum (WEForum), Pakistan Meteorological Department and the UK Met Office, in partnership with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

 

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Proceeding Report of WEForum’s Roundtable on ‘Protecting the Indus Delta’

On 3rd June 2021, WEForum hosted a roundtable on account of ‘World Environment Day’ attended by eminent leaders of NGOs and INGOs, government officials, professors and climate change experts to discuss the Indus Delta.

Download Proceedings Report by Clicking the Link Below to Read in Detail. 

WEForum Roundtable Proceedings_Final Draft

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Proceeding Report – WE CALL 2 COASTAL CLIMATE ACTION 2021 – 29th Jan Meeting

14-May-2021; WEForum’s first partnered virtual strategic meeting which specifically focused on the lower Indus Delta was held on 29th-Jan-2021 where Chief Secretary Sindh, DG ICIMOD, Country Representative IUCN, DG WWF-Pakistan, Sindh Coastal and Climate Secretary, FPCCI President representative and Chairman WEForum were amongst the several speakers.

Download Detailed Proceeding Report by Clicking the Link Below.

WC2CCA 29/1 Proceeding Report Draft

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Water and Climate Change Books for children by Brigadier Muhammad Aslam Khan (Retd)

I truly thank Brigadier Muhammad Aslam Khan (Retd) – Member Advisory Board CGSS for writing delightful books about water and climate change especially for kids and teens. There are many ways to teach children to take care of the planet, and one simple yet powerful approach is through books. I highly recommend these books to our teens.

The booklets can be downloaded by clicking the links below:

Climate Change Guide for Children

Tree Plantation Guide for Children

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‘Pakistan to Paris’ conference concludes: Experts call for more efforts to combat climate change

Senator Nisar A. Memon, Chairman Water and Environment Forum Pakistan, former Federal Minister underlined that “small solutions had to be devel
oped together with the private sector to face climate change challenges”.

 

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1; Press coverage of Nisar A Memon on speech at conference in Delhi. 2; Addressing Baluchistan university Quetta on climate change. 3; Presentation at FAST National University Karachi on climate change.

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ISLAMABAD: Meteorologists worried at the depletion of glaciers in Pakistan studied six glaciers in the Karakorum Range recently, and the results have made them worry even more.

“All of them were found melting at a faster rate. The changing climate is taking a heavy toll on our glaciers,” Chief Meteorologist of Pakistan Met Department (PMD) Dr Ghulam Rasul told Dawn.

And the disaster awaiting the nation can be imagined as depletion of glaciers in northern Pakistan during the last decade had been consistent with the rising temperature.

Experts say the study showed that the Hinarchi glacier, which had retreated 800 metres in the 32 years between 1977 and 2009, retreated another 300 metres during the next five years.

Also explore: ‘Pakistan’s glaciers will melt by 2035’

Similarly, the Baulter glacier which had retreated 1,500 metres, shrank another 400 metres by 2014. The future of the Barpu glacier looks gloomy as it has shrunk 640 metres since 1977.

Dr Rasul explained that due to rising temperature the glaciers had been losing their ice mass at a faster rate than ever before.

“The last 15 years witnessed a big escalation in the thermal regime of glaciated and snow covered region of Pakistan. We recorded more than one degree Centigrade increase in temperature which triggered the formation of glacial lakes and the phenomenon of GLOF – glacial lakes outburst floods – occasionally high river flows, land slips and slides,” he said.

The Met Department study suggests that accelerated melting of glaciers, together with intense monsoon rains, brought river flooding downstream.

It notes that formation of glacial lakes inside the glaciers is now “fairly frequent.” High temperatures, glacier movement or weakening ice walls can cause them to burst open suddenly, flooding areas downstream.

Sometimes, glacial lakes mysteriously appear and disappear suddenly.

A massive lake on the Hinarchi glacier, which PMD team started studying in 2012, disappeared suddenly in August 2014.

Similarly, a massive lake was discovered at the mouth of Liligo glacier in the summer of 2013 that did not exist in 2010 when it started receding.

“Since 2010, Pakistan has regularly suffered floods caused by intense monsoon rainfall, which weathermen had been predicting will further intensify. The floods in 2010 and 2014 inflicted historic losses,” he recalled.

The 2010 floods left no region of the country untouched. It devastated Punjab, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh to various degrees.

Floods visited Balochistan and Sindh in 2011, Punjab and Sindh 2012, Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh in 2013 and Azad Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh in 2014.

Pakistan has been holding the top position among the 10 highly vulnerable nations to climate-induced disasters, according to the organisation, German Watch.

“It is not a matter of pride rather a moment to think about a day when it could be declared as disaster resilient one. Unfortunately, so far no serious thought has been given to mitigate the disaster risk except routinely delivering relief goods and distribution of cheques, which poor economy of Pakistan cannot afford. The development policies of most of the countries are streamlined with the global warming and climate change projections but Pakistan has failed to head in that direction,” lamented Dr Rasul.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014