`Pak glaciers melting because of rising temperature`

Islamabad: Pakistan`s glaciers are continuously melting because of rising temperature, and by the year 2035, the country will no longer have water reserves in the shape of glaciers, a federal Minister said.

"Pakistan is contributing roughly 0.34 per cent of green house gases which are responsible for global warming. However, it is the eight most vulnerable country facing climate changes," Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid said. He added that in the past 100 years, the average temperature of the world had increased by one degree centigrade. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the International Conference on Plants, People and Climate 2013 yesterday, he said the siltation of dams was continuously increasing while forest cover was decreasing. "In 2010, floods forced 20 million people to abandon their houses," he said. The three-day conference has been organised by the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology in collaboration with five other departments of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). "If global warming continues in the next few years, we will face more natural disasters," the minister said. "Glaciers in country are continuously melting because of rising temperature, and by the year 2035, the country will no longer have water reserves in the shape of glaciers," Dawn quoted the Minister as saying. Similarly, Secretary Climate Change Division Raja Hasan Abbas said during the past few years, almost 1,700 people had died in the country because of the floods. In addition, the country faced a loss of USD 15 billion, he added. "23 per cent people in Pakistan are at a risk of floods. The glaciers will melt in the next two to three decades and after that, we will face an acute water shortage due to which the risk of food scarcity will increase," he said.