ISLAMABAD: The $77.8 million “Recharge Pakistan” project that aims to improve the resilience of some of the country’s most vulnerable communities affected by the impacts of climate change will formally be launched on 10 September 2024 in Islamabad.

Championed by the Government of Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and the Federal Flood Commission, under the Ministry of Water Resources, this project has been made possible with the support of the Green Climate Fund, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF) and WWF.

According to a statement of USAID Pakistan, the project will be implemented at select sites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, and Balochistan provinces by the relevant provincial departments and WWF-Pakistan.

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“The project aims to address the country’s current and emerging environmental challenges, such as super floods, widespread rains, heatwaves, and droughts,” it stated.

It added that the project seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and green infrastructure as innovative additions to the nation’s traditional grey infrastructure solutions or the public systems built to manage water resources and stormwater. With a collective grant of US$77.8 million, it added that the project is the largest such investment at the national level, and is estimated to directly benefit more than 680,000 people and indirectly support more than seven million people across the project sites in Pakistan.

The launch event is expected to be attended by senior representatives from the Government of Pakistan, the Green Climate Fund, USAID, TCCF, WWF-US, WWF-Pakistan, and WWF-International.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024