Ecological hazard: With denuding of queen of hills, it all comes crumbling down

Farid Ahmad Abbasi is no stranger to landslides. He has rebuilt his century-old house for the fifth time, different parts of which were damaged in the wake of subsequent landslides since 1996. “The landslides have left fissures in the remaining building and there’s a landslide whenever it rains,” said the 43-year-old taxi driver.

Incidents of landslides rose due to the construction of Murree Expressway over the last decade, he added. To pave way for the 120-feet-wide road belt, many trees had to be chopped down. Later the edges of the road were built, however no trees have been planted in most parks of the community forest that encompasses 98,000-acres.

According to a change analysis study, vegetation patterns during the last five decades, reveal that the local forest has suffered 13 per cent deforestation. This in turn has caused active landslides to increase unprecedentedly; from 10 in 1996 to about 132 in 2013.

District Officer (Forests) Javed Gill said, “Landslides have surged not only due to the ongoing construction on the highway but also because no serious efforts have been made to plant more trees which prevent soil erosion and mudslides.”

Over 100 houses in 22 villages in the community forest, suffer persistently as a result of landslides, which become frequent during monsoon. Murree receives 2,000 mm rain annually of which 1,700 mm pour between late July and mid-September. Other downpour and snow months making up for 400 mm are between December and February.

Zahid Ahmad, a plumber, said he has had to rebuild his own and his brother’s houses almost annually since the last 15 years. “We wrote requests to the National Highway Authority (NHA) and local MPAs to ask for financial help several times but nothing happened,” he said.

Before 2005, he had also inherited about 15-kanal agricultural land comprising apple and apricot trees, however he ended up losing all of the agricultural land to landslides. “It washes down the hill. Nothing stays,” he added.

He said the problem stems from water channels. Once the rain pours in, the water channels are flooded and move downstream. This disturbs the fissures in the hill, particularly those where the trees have been chopped down, causing the mud to slide downhill and onto houses.

Locals chop tree branches for fire, but fewer cut down trees, he said, adding that no officials of any government department have been witnessed planting trees along the highway or other places within the forest.

Gill believes the capacity building of local communities regarding need for forests can turn around things. “The state-owned forest is being rehabilitated now with help of WWF-Pakistan and their degradation is now six per cent, half of the community-based forest. Therefore there is greater need to save community forests,” he said.

Some plantations done by the locals have mostly been of broad-leave trees. These trees can only be utilised for firewood and provide lesser shade as compared to the indigenous conifer species.

Murree forests make up for the biggest conifer forests of Punjab. They are also the most vulnerable in the country due to the rapidly spreading twin cities. However, the government gives no funds for the community forests.

District Forest Officer (Hazara Division) Gauhar Mushtaq said they lack funds. Since 1950, the department is being run by selling 7,000 dried up conifers, that are chopped down every three to four months. A 25 per cent of the revenue goes into paying salaries of the staff while the remaining into construction of schools, dispensaries or wells.

“When we invite experts to share facts, they don’t show up. The government refuses to set a budget either,” he added.

Moreover, he said the NHA has sought its environmental impact assessment through the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency. “We have nothing to do with but even then, nothing has been done to make up for the deforestation,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2013.

You can see the original story here.

Strategic changes: ‘Pakistan has complex issues due to climate change’

“We have suggested building several upstream water reservoirs in Pakistan to prevent floods. We are also examining reforestation as it slows down the process of floods and subsequent droughts,” Marius Keller, an adaptation consultant with the International Institute of Sustainable Development, said speaking to Lahore University of Management Sciences students on Monday.

Keller presented an overview of climate change, examining its impact on economy, poverty and development in several countries. He stressed the need for an enabling environment where government and research institutes could work together towards adapting climate resilient measures.

Keller said that in the last 20 years 140 climate-change triggered events in Pakistan had lead to an average of 500 deaths every year and a loss of $200 million to the country’s economy. He added that in the last 120 years, the average temperature had risen by 2 degrees Celsius globally. He said the temperature in Pakistan had risen by 0.57 degrees Celsius. He added that the sea level had risen by 1.2mm annually and would likely be up by 40mm in 2100.

Keller has been invited by Lead Pakistan to aid the Ministry of Climate Change in devising a national level implementation plan. He said his main objective was to integrate climate change development in a peaceful manner to help people adapt well. He said his team would also assess the climate vulnerability of semi-arid areas.

“Since Pakistan has a very complex geographical terrain, it also has complex issues arising due to climate change.” He added that the ministry had asked for assistance in the areas of food and water security. “But they place even higher importance on attaining sustainable energy.”

He said they had proposed more diversified and durable climate resilient crops which are less dependent on water. “Design systems have been suggested that are robust in more ways than one.” He explained this idea further saying that dams could be built not to certain capacity but to adjust to extreme weather conditions.

Keller said that the national climate change policy was a good stepping stone but no good would come of it until the provinces were engaged. “The policy needs to be decentralised … as people at the grassroots level are the most affected by climate change.”

He said Pakistan needed to figure out key projects and prioritise those. He said it was of utmost importance to bring all stakeholders on board for a project. He said the IISD involved stakeholders from day one. He added that recently they had had a scoping session with the key ministries in Islamabad.

Event moderator Rafay Alam announced a LUMS climate change project in collaboration with the Worldwide Fund for Nature-Pakistan. He said students and researchers were observing meteorological data of eight districts in the Punjab and Sindh to note changes in weather patterns and the ways in which local farmers adapted to those changes.

“It will be a good baseline study for future reference.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2013.

You can see the original story here.

Climate compatible development: Focusing on adaptation and mitigation aspects

In Pakistan, there is need to integrate climate adaption action with socio-economic plans. This was stated by former ambassador and UN Assistant Secretary General Shafqat Kakakhel during a workshop scoping adaption and mitigation plan of action for climate compatible development.

Khel observed that capacity building is not only required regarding climate change related research and the meteorological department, but also important for institutions relevant to energy, water and food security.

These actions will help achieve the government’s priorities, such as a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and Framework for Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). The actions will increase readiness to address adaptation and mitigation, and help ensure that the government has the plans and policies in place to access funding.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has invited officials of International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), a Canadian orgranisation, which has helped countries like Indonesia, Dominican Republic and Kenya design framework for national adaptation plans (NAP).

The IISD team presented the plans implemented in these countries and also presented suggestions for developing similar actions for Pakistan. Local experts gave input to start developing terms of references.

Ministry of Climate Change Deputy Secretary Syed Mujtaba Hussain said the IISD team will help provide a roadmap for developing NAP and NAMA for Pakistan. Both will align with national climate change policy, which clearly outlines that there is a need to set up action and mitigation plans at the provincial as well as national level.

“The implementation could be anywhere from 12 to 15 months from today as we have to have plans for each sector.”

Deborah Murphy, Jo-Ellen Perry and Marius Keller highlighted the challenges they coped with while engaging with the stakeholders in Kenya, Indonesia and Dominican Republic.

Ellen, while narrating examples of designing NAP for the two countries, said in Kenya, 340 priority NAPs were identified and narrowed down for getting funds to only 12 cross-cutting and 30 sectoral adaptation plans.

Endorsing Kakakhel’s points, another participant said that capacity building of the policymakers and even sectoral heads in the Planning Commission is required.

Kakakhel emphasised that roles of about a 100 statutory bodies, like National Flood Commission and National Agricultural Research Council, formed before the ministry came into existence, needs be re-evaluated.

“A diagnostic study needs be conducted to evaluate the terms of references of these statutory bodies, who attain autonomous position under the government’s umbrella when no one is familiar with their expertise, their specific functions.

“How would we know if the National Flood Commission has enough specialists on floods. We do not know. Even we do not know if the climate change ministry has the expertise for sea water intrusion, glaciers or floods or droughts,” he emphasized.

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh of Lead said there is also a need among organisations working on climate change to build and benefit on and from each others’ strengths.

Syed Mujtaba Hussain, suggested holding baselines studies of each ecosystem. “The IISD has brought to attention to upscale the meteorological department, but Pakistan has multiple ecosystems and a baseline study of each ecosystem can guide the future adaptation process,” he said.

The government representatives included officials of the National Disaster Management Authority, ministries of climate change, water and power, the planning commission, National Energy Conservation Centre run by ministry of water and power, National Council of Agriculture Research and Alternative Energy Development Programme. Officials of World Wild Fund Pakistan, other NGOs also participated in the workshop. The team will remain in Islamabad for two weeks and will compile a report.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2013.

You can see the original story here.

150 farmers in Thatta to learn multiple crop cultivation

Nearly 150 farmers in Thatta will learn how to cultivate multiple crops and adjust to the new cropping calendar.

Through a project initiated with the help of three community-based organisations in Thatta, local farmers will find a lot of relief in their work. The project director, Haseeb Kiani, called the project, “the first local adaptation plan of action in response to climate change at the grass root level.”

Lead Pakistan in Muzaffargarh district will also launch a similar project – training 450 farmers to build salinity drains, necessary to drain excess rain water to the canals while preventing soil erosion and water logging problem, leaving the land unsuited for agricultural purposes. The pilot projects, launched last week in Thatta and a week before in Muzaffargarh, are set for completion by April 2014.

Kiani, the director for Lead’s Climate Leadership for Effective Adaptation and Resilience project in 13 districts across South Punjab and Sindh, said they are interviewing 150 people in each district about the changes in response to extreme weather, floods, and uneven rain patterns.

The year-long training project in Thatta was launched on March 29. Interviews with local farmers revealed that winters are becoming shorter while summer season is becoming longer, said Kiani. This has delayed the cropping period since the traditional sowing season for wheat started on October 15 and lasted till the first week of November. With shorter winters, it has moved as farther as December 15, he pointed out.

Many crops do not survive because most local farmers are still following the old cropping calendar. This had led to low yields or has damaged the entire crop of wheat, sunflower, sugarcane and cotton. This programme will train farmers on techniques for maximum utilisation of their land. For one field, they will be trained to crop cotton or wheat along with some local vegetables. If one crop is damaged, the other could serve as a financial cushion, he explained.

The vulnerability study for Muzaffargarh, worst hit by the floods in South Punjab in 2010 revealed the foremost demand to establish salinity drains. Old ones are broken down or non-existent in most areas, he said, adding that uneven monsoon patterns also make these drains an absolute necessity.

Their studies also revealed that only 1.5 million acres of the total 2.5 million acres remains cultivable in Muzaffargarh. Salinity and water logging cannot be blamed entirely for the land becoming infertile, but they are definitely one of the big reasons behind the loss of agricultural land, he said.

The farmers who manage to establish salinity drains will be given small incentives. “This will not only encourage them to build drains they are to benefit from, but will also encourage other farmers to build similar ones to prevent flooding and water logging in the future.”

After the interviews, a vulnerability assessment report is compiled and then focus group discussions are held. Following the focus group discussions, Lead will prepare a local plan of action. So far, assessment studies and focus groups have already been held in Layyah, Dadu, Badin, Muzaffargarh and Thatta, while the plans of actions are in process.

Lok Sanjh, another Islamabad-based NGO, is conducting research to prepare local plan of actions for farmers in Attock, Chakwal and Rawalpindi districts of North Punjab and in Layyah in South Punjab. Its founder, Shahid Zia, said a project to understand climate change will last a year, but a plan of action and implementation will take more time. Research is underway on crop rotation and seed management given the changing weather in these regions, he added.

Five years ago, Zia also introduced the system of rice intensification, a climate-resilient rice growing technique, in northern districts of Punjab. Over 500 farmers are currently applying the technique to grow rice crop.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2013.

You can see the original story here.

Women most affected by climate change, says Shirkat Gah recent study

For woman in rural areas, the consequences of climate change have been a sharp increase in their daily workload and a host of health and social issues, according to a study conducted in Shaheed Benazirabad, formerly Nawabshah, district in Sindh.

Climate Change and Women: A Study, conducted by Shirkat Gah, assesses the impact of changing weather in four flood-affected villages, particularly on women. According to the study, yet to be published,the heavy floods of 2010 and 2011 affected women more than men as it had resulted in an increase in their workload.

A report cited in the study estimated that the floods affected 51 per cent of the women in the district and 40 per cent of the men. About 3.6 million women in Sindh were affected by the floods in 2010 and 2011, of whom 133,000 were pregnant at the time.

Since the floods, women in these villages have been travelling to other villages to find work such as cotton harvesting, while continuing with their household chores and home-based work like embroidery to make extra money.

The floods wiped away most crops, meaning families needed money to buy vegetables and grains previously available in the fields. The loss of a substantial portion of agricultural land meant more labour was required, so women were spending more time in the fields alongside men than before, in addition to their usual tasks.

Many women complained that the rise in heat intensity over the summer and loss of livestock in the floods meant they had to rise earlier to ground and knead flour, cook, fetch water from wells, buy firewood from markets, clean the house, and then also help in the field. Rising temperatures, coupled with poor diet, made it especially hard for women to work in the fields as well as do house chores.

Deforestation, which had made the floods worse, also meant less fodder available for livestock and fewer and sicker animals in these villages. In the past, livestock provided milk as well as income cushion. Now with fewer animals, women were compelled to sell milk and look for work on days men failed to find work.

The increased use of pesticides on the cotton crop had detrimental effects on women’s health. In the absence of firewood, dried and contaminated cotton was being used to light fires. Women, being in charge of the cooking at home, were exposed to the high carbon emissions in the smoke.

The study noted that the riverine forests in three of the four villages started disappearing in 2001, when local landlords and the Forest Department began to clear the land for agricultural purposes, mostly to plant banana trees. Until then, the forests provided beehives (honey was used particularly by pregnant women), grazing land for livestock and free wood.

With the forests gone, in the last three years locals have had to start buying wood and livestock fodder. The disappearance of beri beri and neem trees put an end to several traditional herbal remedies, meaning villagers must buy modern medicines.

The loss of trees has also led to the loss of indigenous bird species such as partridges, doves and parrots. The swamp deer, whose antlers were used in traditional medicines for kidney ailments and TB, has become extinct. The pollution in the Indus has increased, affecting fish populations.

The floods also destroyed several lakes in Sarkand, one of the four villages studied, compelling local fishing communities to take up seasonal wage labor.

The study said that the shift in agricultural patterns to cash crops and farmers using more chemicals and mechanisation had had adverse effects on income and health. In the last three years, cases of hepatitis, skin infections, hypertension and malaria have gone up considerably. The social fabric has also been damaged, with conflict, domestic violence, drug use and suicide rate among women going up.

The study cited several sources showing that rainfall and maximum temperatures had increased in the district since 2006.

Recommendations

The study recommends special adaptation funds for grass root levels to prepare for changes affecting their livelihoods. It also suggest including women in decision making regarding use of natural resources and 33 per cent representation of women seats in local government systems. Introducing schemes backed with green technologies (drought resistant crops, water conservation and management systems) and owned by women will help, it suggests.

The study also recommends promoting climate resistant crops, ensuring of schemes promoting secondary education amongst women, and extending services regarding reproductive heath education and training women in marketing skills. Measures for reducing degradation of natural resources is also suggested.

You can see the original story here.

Ecological hazard: With denuding of Queen of Hills, it all comes crumbling down

 

Sonia Malik

MURREE:

Farid Ahmad Abbasi is no stranger to landslides. He has rebuilt his century-old house for the fifth time, different parts of which were damaged in the wake of subsequent landslides since 1996. “The landslides have left fissures in the remaining building and there’s a landslide whenever it rains,” said the 43-year-old taxi driver.

Incidents of landslides rose due to the construction of Murree Expressway over the last decade, he added. To pave way for the 120-feet-wide road belt, many trees had to be chopped down. Later the edges of the road were built, however no trees have been planted in most parks of the community forest that encompasses 98,000-acres.

According to a change analysis study, vegetation patterns during the last five decades, reveal that the local forest has suffered 13 per cent deforestation. This in turn has caused active landslides to increase unprecedentedly; from 10 in 1996 to about 132 in 2013.

District Officer (Forests) Javed Gill said, “Landslides have surged not only due to the ongoing construction on the highway but also because no serious efforts have been made to plant more trees which prevent soil erosion and mudslides.”

Over 100 houses in 22 villages in the community forest, suffer persistently as a result of landslides, which become frequent during monsoon. Murree receives 2,000 mm rain annually of which 1,700 mm pour between late July and mid-September. Other downpour and snow months making up for 400 mm are between December and February.

Zahid Ahmad, a plumber, said he has had to rebuild his own and his brother’s houses almost annually since the last 15 years. “We wrote requests to the National Highway Authority (NHA) and local MPAs to ask for financial help several times but nothing happened,” he said.

Before 2005, he had also inherited about 15-kanal agricultural land comprising apple and apricot trees, however he ended up losing all of the agricultural land to landslides. “It washes down the hill. Nothing stays,” he added.

He said the problem stems from water channels. Once the rain pours in, the water channels are flooded and move downstream. This disturbs the fissures in the hill, particularly those where the trees have been chopped down, causing the mud to slide downhill and onto houses.

Locals chop tree branches for fire, but fewer cut down trees, he said, adding that no officials of any government department have been witnessed planting trees along the highway or other places within the forest.

Gill believes the capacity building of local communities regarding need for forests can turn around things. “The state-owned forest is being rehabilitated now with help of WWF-Pakistan and their degradation is now six per cent, half of the community-based forest. Therefore there is greater need to save community forests,” he said.

Some plantations done by the locals have mostly been of broad-leave trees. These trees can only be utilised for firewood and provide lesser shade as compared to the indigenous conifer species.

Murree forests make up for the biggest conifer forests of Punjab. They are also the most vulnerable in the country due to the rapidly spreading twin cities. However, the government gives no funds for the community forests.

District Forest Officer (Hazara Division) Gauhar Mushtaq said they lack funds. Since 1950, the department is being run by selling 7,000 dried up conifers, that are chopped down every three to four months. A 25 per cent of the revenue goes into paying salaries of the staff while the remaining into construction of schools, dispensaries or wells.

“When we invite experts to share facts, they don’t show up. The government refuses to set a budget either,” he added.

Moreover, he said the NHA has sought its environmental impact assessment through the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency. “We have nothing to do with but even then, nothing has been done to make up for the deforestation,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2013.

150 farmers in Thatta to learn multiple crop cultivation

THATTA: Nearly 150 farmers in Thatta will learn how to cultivate multiple crops and adjust to the new cropping calendar.

Through a project initiated with the help of three community-based organisations in Thatta, local farmers will find a lot of relief in their work. The project director, Haseeb Kiani, called the project, “the first local adaptation plan of action in response to climate change at the grass root level.”

Lead Pakistan in Muzaffargarh district will also launch a similar project – training 450 farmers to build salinity drains, necessary to drain excess rain water to the canals while preventing soil erosion and water logging problem, leaving the land unsuited for agricultural purposes. The pilot projects, launched last week in Thatta and a week before in Muzaffargarh, are set for completion by April 2014.

Kiani, the director for Lead’s Climate Leadership for Effective Adaptation and Resilience project in 13 districts across South Punjab and Sindh, said they are interviewing 150 people in each district about the changes in response to extreme weather, floods, and uneven rain patterns.

The year-long training project in Thatta was launched on March 29. Interviews with local farmers revealed that winters are becoming shorter while summer season is becoming longer, said Kiani. This has delayed the cropping period since the traditional sowing season for wheat started on October 15 and lasted till the first week of November. With shorter winters, it has moved as farther as December 15, he pointed out.

Many crops do not survive because most local farmers are still following the old cropping calendar. This had led to low yields or has damaged the entire crop of wheat, sunflower, sugarcane and cotton. This programme will train farmers on techniques for maximum utilisation of their land. For one field, they will be trained to crop cotton or wheat along with some local vegetables. If one crop is damaged, the other could serve as a financial cushion, he explained.

The vulnerability study for Muzaffargarh, worst hit by the floods in South Punjab in 2010 revealed the foremost demand to establish salinity drains. Old ones are broken down or non-existent in most areas, he said, adding that uneven monsoon patterns also make these drains an absolute necessity.

Their studies also revealed that only 1.5 million acres of the total 2.5 million acres remains cultivable in Muzaffargarh. Salinity and water logging cannot be blamed entirely for the land becoming infertile, but they are definitely one of the big reasons behind the loss of agricultural land, he said.

The farmers who manage to establish salinity drains will be given small incentives. “This will not only encourage them to build drains they are to benefit from, but will also encourage other farmers to build similar ones to prevent flooding and water logging in the future.”

After the interviews, a vulnerability assessment report is compiled and then focus group discussions are held. Following the focus group discussions, Lead will prepare a local plan of action. So far, assessment studies and focus groups have already been held in Layyah, Dadu, Badin, Muzaffargarh and Thatta, while the plans of actions are in process.

Lok Sanjh, another Islamabad-based NGO, is conducting research to prepare local plan of actions for farmers in Attock, Chakwal and Rawalpindi districts of North Punjab and in Layyah in South Punjab. Its founder, Shahid Zia, said a project to understand climate change will last a year, but a plan of action and implementation will take more time. Research is underway on crop rotation and seed management given the changing weather in these regions, he added.

Five years ago, Zia also introduced the system of rice intensification, a climate-resilient rice growing technique, in northern districts of Punjab. Over 500 farmers are currently applying the technique to grow rice crop.