ASAD ZIA
KYBERPAKHTUNKHWA, Pakistan: Climate change created instant and continuing challenges for South Asia such as glacier melt, sea-level rise, groundwater depletion, extreme weather events, and frequency of natural hazards that are likely to worsen in coming decades.
According to the climate minister, Pakistan had faced the warmest months on record since 1961, with temperatures ranging from 3 to 6 degrees centigrade warmer than normal. The water crisis has broken a 22-year record in Pakistan as the provinces face a 50 per cent shortage of water and there is 97 per cent water scarcity in reservoirs, as per the details released by the Indus River System Authority (IRSA).
In many parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the water table has dropped significantly as water resources had dried up while people facing acute water shortage in both urban and rural areas.
A total of 56 per cent less water is coming to the rivers due to extremely low temperatures in the northern part of the country, the IRSA said while describing the current water situation as worrisome.
Water shortage is also leading to many health issues including water-borne disease, heatstroke, and kidney issues among the residents of the country.
According to a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 70 per cent of households in Pakistan drink bacterially contaminated water. The current heat wave has worsened the situation.
A worse outbreak of cholera in Malakand region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwest Balochistan province left several kids killed and thousands of others infected, and stomach diseases in Punjab and Sindh occurred due to drinking contaminated water.
