CHITRAL: Speakers at a workshop here on Thursday said that slow disasters caused by climate change and global warming were posing threat to Chitral.

The workshop on ‘local action plans for adaptation’ (Lapa) was held under the aegis of Intercooperation , a Swiss Foundation for Development and Cooperation.

Chitral happened to be the first district in the province to have developed its local action plans for adaptation as the district also ranked among the first five districts for vulnerability to natural disasters due to its geographical location and enormity of area.

Addressing the workshop, Intercooperation country director Dr Arjumand Nizami said that the slow disasters caused by climate change and global warming inflicted loss on the area.

She said that Lapa was meant for the security, resilience, preparedness as well as welfare of the vulnerable communities. “It is of immense importance to build the capacity of the government and people to take adaptive measures in the fields of water resource management and agriculture,” she added.

Dr Nizami said that studies were conducted on adaptation of different vegetables and fruits that conformed to the climate changes and the ways to put in place better water management system to avoid its paucity.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Osama Ahmed Warraich said that in Chitral, the phenomenon of climate change was a horrendous issue, which needed to be tackled. He said that Lapa offered the best possible solution in the form of providing guidelines to the government.

The official stressed the stressed the need for elaborative sessions with different cross-sections of society to impart training to them on the theme of adapting themselves to the changing scenario in the wake of global warming.

Dr Mohammad Hanif, a climatologist, warned of drop in the yields of agricultural crops, disappearance of glaciers and rising intensity of storms due to phenomenal rise in global warming.

He said that over the decades, the monsoon had shifted to the upper part of the country which included Chitral thereby making it more prone to the hazards of flash floods and glacial lakes outburst floods.

Dr Jawad Malik, the director of Intercooperation, said on the occasion that with the technical support of Agricultural University, Peshawar and Pak Met, a centre of climate change was established in Peshawar that helped to formulate Lapa.

Dr Mohammad Jamal, Dr Mohammad Zulfiqar, Dr Fakhrud Din and Amir Mohammad presented their papers on Lapa.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2016