US envoy vows to strengthen climate partnership with Pakistan, launches water initiative

American envoy to Pakistan, Ambassador Donald Blome addresses the ceremony to launch a major water management initiative called Recharge Pakistan in Islamabad on September 10, 2024. (Photo courtesy: US embassy)

• Ambassador Blome says Recharge Pakistan will benefit more than seven million people in three Pakistani provinces
• He says it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, replenish water supply by creating 127 groundwater storage basins

ISLAMABAD: The American envoy to Pakistan, Ambassador Donald Blome, highlighted his country’s interest in strengthening partnership with Pakistan to help climate-vulnerable communities on Tuesday, as he addressed a ceremony to launch a major water management initiative called Recharge Pakistan.
The project aims to build climate resilience by utilizing nature-based solutions, such as restoring wetlands, floodplains and improving groundwater recharge, especially in the Indus Basin region. Its core objectives include reducing the impacts of floods and droughts and increasing water security in the country.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change is involved in its implementation, with the help of international partners like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
“I am delighted to be here as we join our partners in launching Recharge Pakistan – an ambitious climate initiative that will strengthen flood resilience and improve water security in some of Pakistan’s most vulnerable communities,” Ambassador Blome said while addressing at the project’s launch event in Islamabad.
“Recharge Pakistan’s network of green infrastructure projects will rehabilitate floodwater channels, rerouting excess water away from where people live and work,” he continued. “It will reforest and restore wetlands to prevent dangerous runoff. It will revitalize the soil’s ability to absorb excess water and store it underground.”
The US ambassador said the project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and replenish the water supply by creating 127 new groundwater storage basins.
He noted that Pakistan was the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index, saying it was experiencing the effects of the climate crisis every day.
“Rising temperatures have taken a toll on Pakistan’s majestic glaciers,” he said. “And Pakistani farmers have seen crops wither under droughts.”
“But by coming together, we can help communities adapt, mitigate, and even reverse some of the worst impacts of climate change,” he added. “And we can do it in a way that lifts up local communities.”
Blome pointed out that his country’s partnership with Pakistan on water management dated back to the 1960s.
He informed that the US had provided $5 billion to the Green Climate Fund and was bringing in new investments in renewable energy to help Pakistan achieve its ambitious goal of reaching 60 percent renewable energy by 2030.
He said Recharge Pakistan will reduce flooding hazards for more than 50,000 hectares, provide Pakistani families, businesses and farms access to clean, fresh water and improve the livelihoods of 687,000 people while indirectly benefiting more than seven million people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
“The United States will continue to broaden and deepen our partnership with Pakistan to protect climate-vulnerable communities, and build a greener, more prosperous and climate resilient future,” he added.