Shaheer Ahmed
Flooding caused by glacier lakes that have been formed or enlarged as a result of climate change is expected to affect at least 15 million people around the world, including approximately two million people in the vulnerable north of Pakistan.
According to a study published in Nature Communications, more than half of the people who are at risk from glacial lake outburst floods live in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru, and China. More than 150 historical and modern floods caused by glaciers are documented in a second study that is currently being reviewed by academic journals for publication. Glacier melting Threatens Millions in Pakistan
This news has been highlighted 4 days before and now again! This time we must prepare ourselves for this disaster. As the calamity caused by floods is irreversible.
It does not appear that climate change has made those floods more frequent up to this point, according to the scientists; however, as glaciers shrink as a result of warming, the amount of water in the lakes increases, making them more dangerous in the extremely unlikely event that dams burst.
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“We had glacier lake outburst floods in the past that have killed many many thousands of people in a single catastrophic flooding event,” said study co-author Tom Robinson, a disaster risk scientist. “And with climate change glaciers are melting so these lakes are getting bigger, potentially getting more unstable.”
Robinson, a researcher said what’s different about his study is that it’s the first to look at the climate, geography, population, vulnerability, and all these factors to get “a good overview of where in the world are the most dangerous places” for all 1,089 glacial basins. At the top of the list is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa basin in Pakistan, north of Islamabad. As a result, this glacier melting threatens millions of Pakistanis and may worsen the situation in North Pakistan.
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A temporary bridge is built after the main bridge was swept away by a lake outburst because of a melting glacier, in Hassanabad village of Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region on June 9, 2022. Pakistan is home to more than 7,000 glaciers, which are rapidly melting due to climate change. But the question is would this bridge be able to stop the upcoming flood?
