River Basins

Indus

The Indus starts on the Tibetan Plateau before making its 3,200 km journey through China, India and Pakistan and merging into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi. A small proportion of the river basin is in Afghanistan.

Asghar Hussain at the site of the Diamer Bhasha project, Image Hassan Abbas

Energy transition

Opinion: Pakistan’s Diamer Bhasha dam is neither green nor cheap

Pakistan is pushing ahead with hydropower as a low-cost way of ‘greening’ its energy sector, but this ignores the latest research as well as history of large dams in the country

Flood water drains towards Hassanabad village, Tariq Jamil

Threat of receding glaciers gives Pakistan communities sleepless nights

A flood from a lake at the base of the Shishper glacier has left a Himalayan community in fear. Though damage was curtailed through timely mitigation efforts, research suggests these events will become more frequent

A fisher on the Poonch River, Jammu and Kashmir, India

environmental law

New riverbed-mining permissions may be final straw for Kashmir’s fish

Scores of stone crushers are springing up along rivers in Jammu and Kashmir, threatening the habitat of both native and introduced fish species

A solitary woman, covered in traditional head scarf, walking towards the Indus River near Skardu in Northern Pakistan [image: Alamy]

Indus basin management demands political cooperation

A new briefing paper has good ideas on joint investments by countries, but should have taken regional tensions into account

Woman farmer carrying her child while cutting rice crops from the field, in village Qasim Solangi, Hyderabad [image by: Manoj Genani]

Women in Pakistan’s Sindh win historic recognition to manage water

Excluded from water management for years despite being a major part of the agricultural workforce in Sindh, women farmers have been granted a role in water governance after the passage of a new amendment

Climate disasters

As Karachi sinks, residents fight for fair climate solutions

Climate adaptation

Roundtable: After COP27, what’s the path to climate resilience for Pakistan?

overhead view of people standing over large water containers

Engineers warn of ‘severe’ groundwater shortage in northwest Pakistan

A recharge well in Kachnar Park, Islamabad, was the first of 50 new artificial groundwater recharge wells in the city to become functional, in June 2022

Islamabad’s recharge wells offer way forward for Pakistan’s groundwater

Fishers pass along the dry side of the Indus River in Hyderabad, southern Pakistan, in September 2018

climate resilience

Experts welcome ‘futuristic’ initiative to restore Indus River in Pakistan

Dengue surges in waterlogged Pakistan in wake of floods

fires burning in hilly area

Long-term impacts of ‘terrible’ fire season in Pakistan’s mountains

Flood affected people are facing difficulties after submerged into flooded and rainwater, due to poor sewerage system, creating problems for residents,

Opinion: Working with local knowledge only way to save Pakistan from flood disasters

A group of people travel in a boat as it passes submerged houses amid flood waters, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Mehar, Pakista

Opinion: Pakistan must get rid of colonial mindset on water

Climate disasters

Climate scientists explain Pakistan’s ‘unprecedented’ floods

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/?p=98635

What melting Tibetan glaciers reveal about disease and global warming

boy hanging on to taut rope in flood

Interview: Climate change only one factor in Pakistan flood devastation

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