Our Correspondent Gilgit
The Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Wendy Glimour and the First Secretary Emilie Milroy have visited Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)-II Gilgit office. The Provincial Coordinator GLOF-II briefed them about the project and its objectives and background; the Scaling-up of GLOF risk reduction in Northern Pakistan (GLOF-II) project is a continuation of the four-year ‘Reducing Risks and Vulnerabilities from GLOF in Northern Pakistan’ (GLOF-I) project.
GLOF-II aims to help vulnerable communities to prepare for and mitigate GLOF risks through early warning systems, enhanced infrastructure and community-based disaster risk management. Ms. Gilmore appreciated the efforts of project team, and the implementing units for incorporation and documentation of indigenous knowledge like glacial grafting and community engagement.
The First Secretary inquired youth engagement in the interventions proposed under the project. GLOF-II Provincial Coordinator emphasised on the opportunities given to the youth under the internship programme, where the local youth from different districts are involved to enhance knowledge of the professional world. GLOF-II is also supporting research students working on climate change resilience.
The early warning systems were of immense interest to the ambassador and she wanted to learn how communities receive the alerts to safeguard against such catastrophies. She was fascinated to learn about the use of drone technologies to monitor GLOF events.
Possible avenues of collaboration between Canada and GLOF II were also discussed. The team was apprised on the selection of only 24 valleys for the project and talked about the need for more financial resources and technological access to upscale the project in future, and to expand its horizons in upcoming years to all the valleys vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Ms Gilmore inquired about the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as the funding body for the project and appreciated the timely provision of resources from GCF and project team’s active collaboration with the donor for various project activities.
