Superstorm Omega

It is reported that the snowless winter in adjacent Ladakh and Indian-held Kashmir is unprecedented. It is the outcome of a severe weather event that might have a major impact on the Indus Basin system’s water availability, which is essential to Pakistan’s economy and agriculture. For a considerable amount of time, environmentalists have been warning that the phenomena of rapid global warming could soon result in serious water scarcity throughout the region, especially in Pakistan, one of the ten countries in the world most severely impacted by rapid climate change. Rising temperatures are causing the glaciers in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, which are a significant source of water for Pakistan’s rivers, to retreat quickly. Since snowmelt is a major source of river water in these parts, a snowless winter might further influence the flow of related river systems, bringing the day of reckoning ever closer. Due to extreme weather events, the reduced flows in the western rivers of the Indus Basin system, the Jhelum and Chenab, which are allotted to Pakistan under the water-sharing treaty with India mediated by the World Bank and originate from or pass through the Indian-held Kashmir and Jammu region, will likely worsen tensions in the region and have an impact on farming in large swathes of our part of Punjab and Sindh. The glaciers will melt more quickly as temperatures rise, and less snow will fall annually to re-establish them. As experts have noted, although faster glacial melt may result in more water in the short term, it may also worsen long-term shortages. That implies, among other things, a reduction in the amount of water available per person, a rise in the unpredictability of yearly river flows, a drop in the amount of water discharged into the sea, leading to increased incursion of seawater, and other associated problems. Extreme weather occurrences have increased dramatically in Pakistan over the past few decades, leading to frequent and disastrous forest fires, heatwaves, devasting floods, and extended droughts in some areas of the nation. Food insecurity in the nation has already increased due to climate change, and unless immediate action is made to lessen the negative consequences of changing weather patterns and the issues they provide, the situation will only get worse due to impending water shortages. We don’t have much time to spend as the future that scientists and other experts have foreseen is now here.