'Karachi could submerge by 2060 due to global warming'

Pakistan's largest city and financial capital Karachi could submerge into the sea by 2060 due to global warming, a top oceanographer has warned lawmakers amid reports of escalating threat of sea intrusion along the coasts of Balochistan and Sindh provinces.
"Some parts of Karachi's Malir area have already gone under water while Sindh's Thatta and Badin districts will also sink into the water by 2050," Asif Inam, director general of the National Institute of Oceanography has briefed the Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology yesterday.
As some coastal parts of Sindh province's Thatta and Badin districts could submerge by 2050, there are apprehensions that entire Karachi city could go under water by 2060.

The meeting was called to discuss the escalating threat of sea intrusion along the coasts of Balochistan and Sindh, as well as the post and pre-partition status of islands, The Express Tribune reported.
"During the last 35 years, almost two kilometres of coastline near Sindh and Balochistan has submerged into the sea as well as 200,000 acres of land in Sindh," Inam said.
The United Nations Environment Programme and its programme on regional oceans in 1989 had included Pakistan in the list of the countries that could be affected due to rising sea levels, Senate panel members were told.

Inam cited "abrupt environmental changes, severity in monsoon and increased flooding" as prime causes of soil erosion and change in coastline near Badin and Thatta.

"This abrupt change has disturbed the oceanic lifecycle for which data from many areas is unavailable," he added.
Speaking before the panel, Sindh University's Professor Sarfraz Hussain Solangi discussed the issues of global warming, climate change and its impact on people.
"We have to prepare for climate change as the temperature of Karachi will rise by three degrees and northern areas are to witness five degrees increase in temperature," he said.
Solangi also shared World Wildlife Federation's report which stated that one kilometre area along the 770 kilometre coastline had already gone under the sea.
"There is a need to counter these threats on a war footing. We should ban the cutting of mangroves trees," he added.

Science and Technology Secretary Kamran Ali Qureshi said it was an issue of grave significance.
Karachi, located on the Arabian Sea coastline, is the capital of Sindh province and the main seaport and financial centre of the country. It has an estimated population of over 23.5 million people as of 2013.