ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Meteorological Department has asked United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to also cover research on glacier melting as one of elements of its project Strategic Strengthening of Flood Warning and Management Capacity of Pakistan.

Right now, Pakistan does not have any scientific data or an early warning system on melting glaciers up north.

Without this, the country cannot anticipate or prevent the annual flooding that covers almost entire country with exception of Balochistan.

Met Office’s Chief, Dr. Ghulam Rasul raised the point at an international workshop on Strategic Data for Reliable Models and Timely Flood Forecast.

He said each year, a huge amount of water from melting glaciers in the north mixes with monsoon rainwater and is collected in all major reservoirs in the country. However, this is later wasted by being dumped into the sea.

An estimate of 30 to 40 million acres feet of rainwater is wasted by dumping it into the Arabian Sea every year in Pakistan.

The Indus Basin is home to more than two hundred million people and the devastating floods are a regular occurrence in this region. However, the recent floods reached catastrophic levels and broke all historic records, becoming a very dangerous threat to humans as well as livestock, property, the already poor infrastructure, and ecology.

He said because the country lacks proper scientific data on the melting glaciers up north, they rely on estimations which are basically guesswork. These estimations will help in taking pre-emptive measures when there is simultaneous melting of glaciers and monsoon rainfall. The data will also help conserve water better for various purposes.

Protecting the infrastructure and loss of human life demanded that action be taken immediately to make sure catastrophic events like these did not happen on a regular basis in future. UNESCO is working with Pakistani government to make sure that it can meet flood-related challenges in the country. (APP)