New programme launched to enhance climate resilience, water security in Pakistan

• Recharge Pakistan aims to increase water storage and recharge through wetlands, floodplains, and hill-torrents management
  
• The programme will build the resilience of vulnerable communities through climate-adapted, community-based natural resource management and livelihoods
  
• It will forge a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s climate change adaptation and flood risk management approaches.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) under the Ministry of Water Resources, and WWF-Pakistan have launched a programme titled ‘Recharge Pakistan: Building Pakistan’s Resilience to Climate Change through Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for Integrated Flood Risk Management’ with a 30-year vision.

This programme unifies several government entities in an unprecedented collaboration with WWF and other stakeholders, to effect nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation across Pakistan’s Indus River Basin. 

Recharge Pakistan will be a flagship programme to increase water storage and recharge through wetlands, floodplains, and hill-torrents management. 

It will aim at building the resilience of vulnerable communities through climate-adapted, community-based natural resource management and livelihoods. The initiative will also forge a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s climate change adaptation and flood risk management approaches.

The programme consists of three phases, each of which spans 10 years. It will be implemented in selected sites, along the Indus River, across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan, and Sindh. These sites will be selected based on flood risks, climate change projections, water storage and recharge potential, and the needs of local communities. 

Read more: World must adapt to 'inevitable' climate change, warns report

The initiative also envisions that by 2050, ecosystem-based adaptation will contribute towards better climate resilience, water and food security, and sustainable livelihoods. 

More than 10 million people, equivalent to around five per cent of Pakistan’s population, will directly benefit from the programme, while 20 million people across 50 vulnerable districts of Pakistan will be indirect beneficiaries.

Highlighting Pakistan’s leadership role in addressing climate change under the Prime Minister’s vision, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam stated that ecosystem-based adaption is the cornerstone of the government’s climate agenda, which comprises the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Programme (10BTTAP), Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, Protected Areas Initiative, and Green Stimulus, along with Recharge Pakistan. The ecological benefits of such initiatives are also expected to serve the global community.

Read more: Pakistan faces threat of large-scale displacement due to ecological crisis

Commenting on this initiative, Chief Engineering Advisor and Chairman, Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Ahmed Kamal said that the project is the first of its kind that will introduce flood management through innovations and will result in the strengthening of the social fabric of society.

WWF-Pakistan's Director General Hammad Naqi Khan said that in recent years Pakistan has become more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Incidents of floods are increasing in intensity and frequency in the Indus Basin, resulting in serious humanitarian and economic repercussions. 

He added that integrated flood risk management is now a key national priority, adding that the programme proposes to undertake ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) interventions that will store floodwater in wetlands, floodplains, and depressions (green infrastructure) at several priority sites.

According to German Watch’s long-term Climate Risk Index (CRI) data obtained from 1999 to 2018, Pakistan is among the top five countries affected by the impacts of weather-related events such as heatwaves, storms, floods among others.

Furthermore, Pakistan witnessed more than 152 major climate-related events and lost around USD 3.79 billion in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. The country is also one of the most water-stressed in the world, with average per capita water availability at 964 m3 per annum and has been reliant on costly grey infrastructure flood and water management measures with limited efficacy. 

Read: World Bank stresses on improving water use efficiency in Pakistan

The project will build Pakistan’s climate resilience and water security through cost-effective ecosystem-based adaptation.

To tackle the impacts of climate change and water security, Recharge Pakistan will contribute to the relevant policies and commitments, including the National Climate Change Policy, National Flood Protection Plan IV, National Water Policy, and Sustainable Development Goals. It will lead to additional water storage capacity in wetlands alongside the river system to regulate water discharges during high floods and will promote local rainwater harvesting and development of small storages on rivers during peak flows.

The key implementing partners and stakeholders include the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms; National Disaster Management Authority; Pakistan Meteorological Department, Global Change Impact Study Centre (GCISC); Provincial Departments in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, viz Irrigation, Forests, Wildlife, Fisheries, Environment, Agriculture, PDMAs, and Tourism, NGOs, and academia.