The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Project-II, implemented in 18 disaster-prone districts across KPK and Gilgit-Baltistan, has helped increase vegetative cover in these areas by 700 hectares.
Experts told the media on Friday that in the last 20 years, 960 devastating outburst floods have happened in KP and GB. Chitral, Upper Dir, Swat, Kohistan, and Mansehra in KP and Skardu, Kharmang, Gilgit, Hunza, Diamer, Shigar, Ghanche Ghizer, Nagar, and Astore in GB, are now vulnerable to GLOF, according to Khan Faraz of Hayatabad, Peshawar.
The monitoring teams are keeping an eye on changes in the lakes to save lives and livelihoods in mountain villages and implement climate-resilient infrastructure and better GLOFs warning systems.
In addition to upgrading local irrigation systems, glacier grafting is being done to help meet the water needs of mountain towns. The construction of flood protection barriers is underway, and local volunteers have expressed interest in completing the project.
