A group of high-level representatives of development partners travelled with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to Gilgit-Baltistan for the inauguration of the Glacier Lakes Outburst Floods (GLOF) project of Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and the Governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan supported by UNDP. The group included Canada’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Heather Cruden; the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Jeannette Seppen; and First Secretary of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Lorna Jane Hall.
Many remote communities in Pakistan’s mountainous north are vulnerable to GLOF – sudden floods which occur when the dams containing glacial lakes burst, causing sudden, dramatic and potentially devastating flooding. In July 2010, for example, a massive GLOF caused massive destruction in the remote valley of Bindo Gol in Chitral district, damaging homes, communication links, orchards and agricultural lands. As the climate changes, such events are expected to occur more frequently. Pakistan is considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
The GLOF project is a unique partnership between UNDP and the Government of Pakistan to increase capacity at all levels – from community members to public institutions – to understand and address GLOF risks. The project is being piloted in Bindo Gol, Chitral, and Bagrot, Gilgit.
The pilot project develops GLOF risk reduction plans and community disaster risk management groups which are trained to respond quickly and effectively to GLOF risks, and to identify and put in place practical measures (such as bunds) to protect lives and property from flooding. These groups are linked via communication channels to local government bodies and a strengthened meteorological department with three state-of-the-art weather stations installed at high-risk locations.
When flooding hit areas of Chitral in July this year, the GLOF project enabled government institutions to take advantage of an early warning system and respond quickly to flooding. While communities were better equipped and more resilient, and able to evacuate families from at-risk areas.
The first phase of this project was sponsored by UNDP, the Government of Pakistan and the Adaptation Fund. The project’s current outlay is $7.6 million ending in October 2015. Following the success of the pilot, a second phase worth $36.9 million has been proposed to the new United Nations Green Climate Fund.
The GLOF project is an example of how government, communities and international partners can come together to protect highly vulnerable communities from the worst effects of climate change. It demonstrates the importance of prompt and decisive action, and the necessity of ensuring that the National Policy on Climate Change is implemented and all policy actions integrate climate change. With support from donors, UNDP hopes to expand the project across the mountainous north of Pakistan, empowering countless communities to work with government and assess and mitigate their own vulnerability to natural disaster.