PESHAWAR: The Federal Ministry of Climate Change has claimed that it has approved annual working plan for 2020 worth US $14 million for carrying on activities regarding the glacial lake outburst floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

In a rejoinder, issued to clarify a new item regarding delay in the project that appeared in this newspaper on Monday, the ministry said that maximum funds were allocated for the local communities that were facing threats of climate change and glacial lack floods outburst.

“The budget allocations have been made after extensive deliberations of ministry of climate change with the local stakeholders and their controlling governments,” it said.

Regarding delay in the project, the ministry said that the delay occurred owing to a faulty and non-transparent project implementation model that UNDP Pakistan was directed to change and which was then duly rectified for credible and timely delivery.

The project is of unprecedented importance that will enhance Pakistan’s readiness for tackling glacial lake outburst floods, especially in 16 most climate vulnerable valleys in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. It will create 40 state-of-the-art GLOF and glacial monitoring stations for early warning and boost the community preparedness for adapting to climate triggered GLOFs.

Regarding released of funds by donor to the ministry, it clarified that no fund was received by the ministry directly. Furthermore, there is no bank account related to the project opened by the ministry so far. Thus, there is no question of receiving funds from the project donor agency directly.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2020