Overview
- At the FAO Rome Water Dialogue, Prime Minister’s advisor Dr Syed Tauqir Hussain Shah said bureaucratic delays and slow disbursement are undermining Pakistan’s climate and water response.
- He stated Pakistan has entered an officially water-scarce phase, with storage capacity of about 30 days that threatens food and drinking-water security.
- Shah described a dual crisis of extremes and scarcity, citing 2022 floods that affected over 33 million people and catastrophic flooding again in 2025 alongside recurring drought stress.
- Pakistan’s NDCs estimate a need of $7–$14 billion annually for adaptation by 2030, yet rigid procedures and overlapping approvals have limited access to available global climate finance.
- Calling for reform, he urged a mix of large-scale storage and nature-based solutions, and highlighted Green Climate Fund timelines of roughly 24 months to approval and 9–18 months to first disbursement, with financing skewed toward debt over grants.