Coastal areas and farms prone to climate change implications

Experts say the challenge can be overcome through replicable community-level livelihood support models and annual financial allocations at district and provincial levels KarachiAdapting to climate change in coastal areas requires replicable community-level livelihood support models and annual financial allocations at district as well as provincial level.This was reiterated by speakers during a closing ceremony of WWF-Pakistan`s five-year project, “Building capacity on climate change adaptation in coastal areas of Pakistan,” (CCAP) on Thursday.Arif Ahmed Khan, the secretary at the ministry of climate change, said though the hazardous impact from climate change may not be realised by the public of Pakistan, it had posed a major civilisational challenge.He said the intensity of issue can be gauged from the fact that at the recently held COP21 in Paris, representatives of 195 countries discussed the rising environmental challenges.Khan warned that the coming 25-30 years were very crucial in terms of adverse impacts of climate change, and called for proactive adaptation practices.Speaking on the occasion, Ali Dehlavi, the senior manager of CCAP project, said an increase of 0.5 centigrade in temperature would be observed in next 25 years, and, according to his study, the rise in temperature would lead to 8-10 percent yield losses across all crops of Sindh and Punjab, resulting in a loss of Rs30,000 per acre to farm households.General Manger Lead-Pakistan Tahir Rasheed said climate change was potential threat to development and poverty reduction efforts. “Climate change impacts are complex and require coordination across the departments,” he said.“District as well as provincial governments need to allocate more funds for tackling climate change.”He emphasised strong communication strategy for sensitizing and creating awareness among various stakeholders and local communities.Muhammad Aslam Ansari, the deputy director of Sindh fisheries department said climate change was not only affecting the coastal communities dwelling there since decades but also altering the prevailing environmental conditions.He said the communities were highly exposed to tidal flooding, cyclones, droughts and loss of the livelihood resources. “The condition of Indus deltais further deteriorated due to reduction in water flow into Indus River,” Ansari said.“This is damaging not only agriculture but also fisheries sector in Pakistan, hence minimum 10 MAF water downstream Kotri need to be released.”Muhammad Akram Anjum, the chief meteorologistsaid as seen from last five consecutive years, Pakistan has become prone to floods. He further warned that a sea level rise of 6mm per year was underway due to increase in temperature.Anjum emphasized that there was a need to conserve water during flooding season and should have effective mechanism to utilize it in a better way. He also called for an effective climate resilient infrastructure in disaster prone areas of Pakistan.On the occasion, Ghani Asif, a local community representative from Jiwani said that soil erosion was eating away their land and damaging their livelihood resources particularly fisheries.He also said a large number of jelly fish has been witnessed in coastal waters of Jiwani and Sur Bander which were rarely seen there in past.News SourceNews Collated byPAKISSAN.com