Enhance community, local and national-level urban climate change resilience to water scarcity, caused by floods and droughts in Rawalpindi and Nowshera, Pakistan

Deforestation has been a persistent problem with a variety of causes in Pakistan, including settlement expansion, agro-industrial expansion, use of wood for domestic fuel, logging and forest fires. Meanwhile glacial melt and retreat and the rise of the permanent snow line causes increased run-off, which is more difficult to retain due to deforestation.

The main objective of the proposed project is to “enhance community, local and national-level urban climate change resilience to water scarcity, caused by floods and droughts in Rawalpindi and Nowshera cities.”

This will be achieved through the following proposed sub-objectives:

• Community level: Enhance community and household level flood resilient water harvesting facilities (using innovative techniques) and strengthen capacities to plan, construct, operate, maintain and replicate these.
• District / City level: Enhance city and district-level water harvesting facilities in public buildings and on water storages in public gardens, develop district / city-level spatial strategies as tool to assess climate change related floods, droughts and water scarcity to plan for and manage climate change risks and to strengthen capacities to plan, construct, operate, maintain and replicate water harvesting facilities in public buildings and gardens.
• National and Provincial level: Strengthen national and provincial-level capacity to guide / direct city-level development considering climate change and disaster risks and impacts, especially water scarcity caused by floods and droughts.