The severe cold may cause more difficulties for flood-affected families, especially in the mountainous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Staff reporter, Daily Dawn, Dawn TV report
Islamabad: Meteorologists have warned that Pakistan may face the coldest winter in decades this year due to ‘La Nina’, which may create more difficulties, especially for flood-affected families living in the northern areas.
Experts said that Pakistan may face the coldest winter in decades this year due to La Niña.
A recent report prepared by the Inter-Sector Coordination Group and its partners has said that Pakistan is likely to experience colder than usual temperatures this year due to ‘La Nina’ climate change, which may cause more difficulties, especially for flood-affected families living in the mountainous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.
La Nina occurs when sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean drop abnormally, causing severe weather changes around the world.
The weather forecast for October issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that slightly negative phases of El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole will affect rainfall in Pakistan.
According to the report, less than normal rainfall is expected in northern Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, while rainfall is likely to be normal in southern areas such as Sindh, Balochistan and southern Punjab.
The report further said that the possible impacts of this weather phenomenon include disruption of Kharif crop harvesting due to torrential rains, risk of dengue spread in stagnant water, increased chances of glacial lake outburst in upland areas, impact on irrigation systems due to water shortage in rivers, increase in smog and air pollution in plains, and negative impacts on animal health and fodder availability.
The report also notes that the post-flood situation is deteriorating, while the capacity of the government and aid agencies is also weakening.
The report states that despite a strong local and international response to the onset of the crisis, the presence and capacity of humanitarian agencies on the ground has declined after three months, initial emergency aid and reserves have been depleted, and agencies are now seeking more funding for long-term relief efforts to ensure the provision of basic services from the humanitarian phase to the early recovery phase.
The report expresses the greatest concern about the long-term loss of livelihoods, which has become a threat to the recovery and self-reliance process, with fields submerged, crops destroyed, livestock and fodder washed away, while agricultural machinery and equipment were damaged or destroyed, making it difficult for farmers to restore their livelihoods.
According to a recent geospatial analysis by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Punjab, a key food-producing province, has seen nearly 1.2 million hectares of land submerged, destroying key crops of rice, cotton and sugarcane. The disaster struck at a critical time for the cultivation of Rabi crops, posing a serious threat to food security, employment and resilience.
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