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Mountain Pakistan cuts forest loss, disaster risk with river power
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on March 14th, 2016
Reuters: In her home in the remote Hunza valley, Gul Mehreen smiles as she places a tea kettle on the electric stove in her immaculate kitchen. As she makes tea for guests, the farmer jokes about "how amazingly enjoyable" cooking has become since a small-scale hydropower generator was installed nearby. Her visitors nod and burst into happy laughter. In this picturesque village, perched above the gushing turquoise waters of the Hunza river, and with a view of the 8,000-metre Rakaposhi mountain, in Pakistan's...
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Drought-hit Pakistan turns to solar water treatment
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on February 2nd, 2015
Reuters: Worsening drought has led to over 80 percent of water resources in Pakistan’s southern Tharparker district becoming unfit for people to drink, a new study says.
That has led to plans by the Sindh provincial government to invest 5.4 billion Pakistani rupees ($53 million) in installing 750 solar-powered reverse osmosis water purification plants across the sprawling desert district, to help get safe drinking water to the region’s over 1.5 million people.
All of the facilities are expected to be...
Pakistan needs political will in face of climate threats: Experts
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on September 6th, 2014
Reuters: Pakistan's vulnerability to climate change is being made worse by poor governance and the degradation of its natural resources, jeopardising the food security, health and livelihoods of its poorest citizens, climate change experts claim.
"Poverty is a crucial factor in assessing vulnerability ... to climate change and extreme events,' said Adil Najam, dean of Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies, during a recent meeting on implications for Pakistan of the Intergovernmental Panel...
As mountain snow fails and glaciers melt, Pakistan faces water threats
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on May 24th, 2014
Reuters: Farmers in the valleys of northern Pakistan fear for the survival of their summer crops after a short winter of low snowfall altered the flow patterns of mountain streams, potentially robbing the farmers of water they rely on to irrigate their fields. Experts at the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and senior weather observers posted at stations in Pakistan's Upper Indus Basin (UIB) say last winter's snowfall in most of the valleys of the Gilgit-Balistan province was as much as 70 percent...
Pakistan moves to introduce flood-tolerant rice varieties
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on January 11th, 2014
Reuters: For the first time in years, Pakistani farmer Zulfiqar Ali cannot afford to sow winter wheat. Damage to his standing rice crop from heavy monsoon rains has left him penniless.
"My rice crop on 18 hectares was flattened by lashing rains in July,' said Ali, standing next to his paddy field in Sialkot district, some 190 km (120 miles) from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. "I have already landed in a debt trap, and my children have been hungry for many days.'
Although Pakistan produces enough rice...
Government budget cuts threaten Pakistan’s climate change efforts
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on July 13th, 2013
Reuters: A sharp cut in government funds for Pakistan's main climate change agency may mean little to thousands of people in homes perched along a flood-prone river in the city of Rawalpindi. But it could tip them into crisis during the monsoon season that has just begun.
The natural river - known as Leh Nullah - doubles as a drain, and is now contaminated with rubbish and sewage. It has burst its banks several times in the past, severely damaging houses. The last time this happened was in July 2001, when...
Pakistan wilts under record heat wave
Posted by Reuters: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on June 5th, 2013
Reuters: Zulekhan Mumtaz has seen her livelihood as a seller of camel milk turn sour because of a brutal heat wave that left Pakistan sweltering for three weeks in May with temperatures up to 51 degrees Celsius. "My customers say they can no longer buy spoilt milk and squander their money,' the 31-year-old said, looking at the clotted yellow liquid. "How can I buy fodder for the camel and food for my two children if the heat wave damages my milk?' she asked, resting with her animal in the shade of a tree...