Coordinator to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam said that managing exacerbating flood risk in Pakistan through ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) as a transformative approach is the most viable and effective way to turn devastating floods boon for the socio-economic well-being and ecosystems of the country.
“While Pakistan continues to face escalating climate risks including devastating floods, adopting and promoting EbA strategies in managing the growing flood risks and its adverse impacts on infrastructure, lives and livelihoods of the people is crucial to protect vulnerable communities, restore degraded ecosystems and build climate resilience across the country,” the PM’s climate aide made these remarks as keynote speaker at a high-level event ‘Recharge Pakistan as Life to Indus’ held here in Baku on Tuesday at Pakistan Pavilion on the sidelines of the COP29 global climate conference in Baku.
She highlighted that floods have long continued to pose growing risks to Pakistan’s landscapes, infrastructure, communities and their livelihoods with catastrophic events such as the 2022 floods, which displacing millions and causing loss of billions of rupees in economic damages.
“We must realise that traditional flood water management or defence mechanisms alone can no more provide long-term solutions to the floods, which are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, Romina Khurshid Alam cautioned and suggested, “However, mainstreaming ecosystem-based adaptation techniques is a viable adaptation and risk mitigation solution, that can help leverage the natural processes of ecosystems to mitigate flooding risks while delivering co-benefits for biodiversity, livelihoods, and climate resilience.”
Ms Alam said further that Pakistan’s unique geography underpins need for innovative solutions like EbA to cope with its flood risks. “By investing in nature-based solutions, we not only reduce vulnerability to flooding but also support biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and sustainable livelihoods,” she suggested.
Being an EbA-based flood and water resource management as well as community resilience building project, Recharge Pakistan initiative will provide the best model initiative for other countries follow the suit, the PM’s climate aide Romina Khurshid Alam hoped.
Giving overview of the Recharge Pakistan Project, Director-General of the WWF-Pakistan Hammad Naqi Khan said that monsoon rains and hill torrents, particularly during summer months are causing massive socio-economic damages in the country for want of exdess water storage facilities.
But, efforts would be taken under the ambitious Recharge Pakistan Project restore dried up or blocked wetlands in the country to store excess flood water for its use for domestic, agricultural and ground-water recharge purposes during dry months, Mr. Khan remarked and added that plans have already been hatched up to build resilience of the local communities living on the either side of the Indus river. Because, these are the people, who not only are the forefront victims of the floods but also lose everything they have including livelihoods and agriculture.
Sharing vision and overarching goals of the project, the WWF-Pakistan’s top key official informed the participants of the event that the seven-year Recharge Pakistan launched last year basically aims to initiate a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s approach to flood and water resource management by demonstrating the cost-effectiveness, benefits and sustainability of EbA adaptation and green infrastructure. interventions in the flood-prone Indus basin.
Championed by the climate change and environmental coordination ministry, Federal Flood Commission of Pakistan and WWF-Pakistan and funded by the UN-led Green Climate Fund, the US$ 77 million Pakistan Recharge project has been made possible by the collaboration of the local communities in Dera Ismael Khan, The Ramak Watershed, Manchar-Chakkar Lehri Watershed, USAID and other corporate partners.
The EbA approaches and green infrastructure interventions being adopted under this ambitious and the country’s largest floodwater management project aims to reduce flood extent by 50,800 hectares and capture 20 million cubic meter water. Besides, watershed management interventions will aim to replenish 1.6 million cubic meter of soil infiltration water. The initiative will also benefit directly around 680,000 people and 7 million people indirectly on the either side of the Indus river.
Global Lead of Climate and Energy at WWF-International and ex-COP president, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said that this largest-ever adaptation project being implemented in Pakistan is a good reflection of the global narrative shift from climate-vulnerable to climate-resilient being pursued at the global climate forums including UN-led COP meetings.
“But, success of this project, which could be a scalable example for other flood-viulnerable developing countries, would be dependent on the scale of involvement of local communities living in the Indus river basin,” she cautioned and added, “because, most of similar projects have met failure for lack of local communities’ involvements in such interventions.”
Kristen Sarri, acting chief climate officer at USAID International said that massive floods in 2022 and 2010, which brought gigantic level of socio-economic damages and displacement of millions of the people would also remind us all of the Pakistan’s climate vulnerability, which also led to rise in the country’s diseases burden.
“Since then USAID has particularly engaged with Pakistani government in helping the country manage floods and their impacts on people and their livelihoods by adopt smart and viable water management solutions in the river basin areas,” Kristen Sarri remarked and added, “We will also enhance our efforts to next level by restoring forests, Indus ecosystem and building climate resilience of the people and their livelihoods under the Recharge Pakistan project.”