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Arab News
08-08-2025
- General
- Arab News
In Pakistan, teacher-turned-activist fights climate change one rainwater well at a time
ISLAMABAD: In the foothills of Azad Kashmir, where receding springs once signaled environmental collapse and families quietly planned their migration, a former schoolteacher is proving that climate action doesn't have to come from the top. Usman Abbasi, 46, began his environmental journey a decade ago in his hometown of Kotli, where he watched rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and deforestation chip away at the valley's ecological balance. A teacher at the time, Abbasi started modestly, planting trees and installing dustbins around his community, but the impact of Pakistan's climate crisis soon compelled him to take his mission further. Fast forward to 2025, and Abbasi is leading a quiet but powerful grassroots movement centered on rainwater harvesting wells and ponds. His efforts, now expanding into the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, have helped communities save millions of rupees, restored groundwater in parched regions and convinced entire families to abandon their plans to leave. 'This solution is not expensive,' Abbasi told Arab News during a visit to the Institute of Islamic Sciences in Islamabad, one of the many institutions transformed by his approach. 'If someone can afford to install a Rs600,000 ($2,117) borewell at home, they can add this [electric motor] system for just Rs150,000 ($529).' Abbasi first visited the seminary during a 2024 plantation drive and discovered that the campus, home to over 1,200 students, had little access to piped water. The school was spending Rs30,000 ($105) per day on tankers. Months later, he returned with a solution: a Rs180,000 ($635) rainwater harvesting well, which now channels monsoon runoff from rooftops into an underground system filled with natural filtration materials. 'It's drilled like a borewell and filled with charcoal, gravel, sand, broken bricks or stones, and wrapped in a geofabric cloth to prevent dirt from entering,' he explained. 'Rainwater from rooftops and the surrounding ground is channeled into this well through pipes visible in the two manholes.' The result was immediate. Two dry boreholes were revived, and today, a single motor runs for six hours a day, providing water for drinking, washing, and daily use, saving the seminary nearly Rs900,000 ($3,175) each month. 'In our area, groundwater has dropped drastically,' said Abrar Ahmed, deputy general secretary of the institute. 'Borewells that once worked at 70–80 feet now have to go 500 feet deep, and even then, it is hard to find water. We're hopeful that by implementing the same method for our other borewells, not only will the institution's water crisis be resolved, but the surrounding area's needs can also be fulfilled.' 'RAINWATER HARVESTING' Pakistan, a country of over 240 million people, relies heavily on groundwater for both agriculture and domestic use. According to the World Bank, 90 percent of rural households and over 50 percent of agriculture depend on underground water. Yet despite this reliance, the country lacks a coordinated groundwater management system, and aquifers are being rapidly depleted due to over-extraction, poor infrastructure, and climate change. Abbasi's model is being noticed. Aamir Mehmood Mirza, Secretary of Environment, Wildlife and Fisheries, praised his work and its impact on community awareness. 'He should also seek technical guidance and expert assistance to yield better results, and we are developing a model soon with our experts to gather scientific data on such efforts to expand them on a larger scale,' he said. In recent years, Pakistan has introduced measures to encourage rainwater harvesting. In 2025, the federal cabinet approved a Green Building Code mandating such systems in all new construction. In Punjab province, the Environmental Protection Agency has required rainwater harvesting across 23 industrial sectors. In Rawalpindi, the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), in collaboration with UN-HABITAT, is installing systems in 30 public buildings. But Abbasi's work extends far beyond formal policy. In the rugged hills of northern Pakistan, he has built hundreds of rainwater ponds that have brought back natural springs, revived livestock farming, and allowed residents to stay on ancestral land. His influence is growing online, too. Using platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, Abbasi has amassed more than 600,000 followers. 'This is the real use of social media,' he said. 'Through my social media, I have created a following of like-minded people and together we can drive this social change.' In the summer of 2024, Abbasi and his students at the Beaconhouse School System planted nearly 80,000 trees across Azad Kashmir. His work has earned him a presidential nomination by the Azad Kashmir government. 'This [environmental conservation] is something that we all must absolutely do, not to earn something from it but for our country and our future generations,' Abbasi said. 'If a collective action to preserve the environment is not taken, then in a few years, there will be no water, there will be mountains of trash everywhere and a concrete jungle.'
Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
‘People are dying, we are not safe': Britons in Kashmir beg to leave
British families stranded in Kashmir have begged to be evacuated from a 'holiday turned nightmare' as Pakistan and India exchange heavy gunfire. Khola Riaz, who lives in Luton, travelled last month to Kotli, a mountainous town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, with her four-year-old son, Esa, to visit her unwell father. But within a week, her parents' hometown had become the centre of a military standoff between the two nuclear-armed states. Several British families in Kotli, which straddles the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, have said they were forced into a lockdown as at least five civilians were killed in an intense night of artillery exchanges. • India-Pakistan live: nations strike airbases and move closer to war 'The bombing
LBCI
09-05-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Pakistan police say four civilians killed by Indian shelling
Four civilians were killed in Indian shelling overnight in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, police said Friday, after days of exchanges between the nuclear-armed neighbors. "Indian forces shelled civilian areas... resulting in the deaths of four people, including a two-year-old girl and injuring twelve others," police official Adeel Khan, based in Kotli district, told the AFP, adding that the shelling continued late into the night. The deaths were confirmed by a senior government official based in Muzaffarabad. AFP
Arab News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Silent streets, shuttered shops: Fear grips Kotli after India strikes in Azad Kashmir
KOTLI, Azad Kashmir: A convoy of journalists escorted by the Pakistani military and officials traveled through the scenic but tense roads of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) this week, arriving in the afternoon in Kotli, where an Indian strike on a mosque on Wednesday early morning had killed two people. The usually bustling city stood silent, its shops shuttered, roads empty and anxious residents watching from a distance. Amid the most intense military flare-up between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in decades, New Delhi said it had struck nine 'terrorist infrastructure' sites in Pakistan and AJK early Wednesday. AJK is the part of the disputed Kashmir valley administered by Pakistan while Jammu and Kashmir is a region administered by India. India described Wednesday's strikes as retaliation for an April 22 attack in its part of Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. Delhi attributed that attack to Pakistan, a claim Islamabad has repeatedly denied. Pakistani authorities said six locations were hit across the country during Indian strikes, resulting in 31 deaths and 57 injuries. The Pakistan army spokesperson said the military responded by downing five Indian aircraft. 'It [the attack] happened after 12:30 a.m. on [Wednesday], when people were asleep and were jolted awake by the sound of the blasts,' Dawood Ahmed, a local resident, told Arab News near the mosque in Kotli that was hit by Indian strikes. 'It happened so suddenly, and people were so terrified that they rushed out of their homes with their children ... We thought a major attack had occurred and that Kotli had been surrounded.' Ahmed said the Nakial sector on the Line of Control (LoC), the restive de facto border separating the Pakistani and Indian sides of Kashmir, was about 22 kilometers from the area. 'So, we are not used to regular firing or skirmishes,' he added. 'This was something entirely new for us.' Asked about the Indian claim that it had targeted a militant facility, Ahmed said the building was just a mosque. No one lived there and it was occupied only when the imam came to lead prayers. Arab News could not independently verify this. 'PLACE OF WORSHIP' Nasir Rafiq, the area's deputy commissioner, said a house located next to the mosque was also hit by the Indian strikes. 'Two people, a 19-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, both siblings, were killed in the attack, and two others were injured including a woman and her son,' he told Arab News, standing in front of the destroyed house and mosque. He said the siblings, both students, had come from the nearby Nakial town. The elder sister was attending university and the younger brother was in school. As the media delegation remained at the site, more residents gathered, listening closely to the conversations between journalists and locals. Dr. Mazhar Iqbal Tahir, head of a local hospital, said the blast was so massive that staff couldn't immediately understand what had happened. 'We immediately imposed emergency [at the hospital] and called all doctors and health care professionals,' he told Arab News. Tahir said the hospital treated the injured, but both siblings had died before they were brought in. Umar Farooq, a local university professor, said Kotli was one of the most populated cities in AJK and far from the LoC, questioning how India could have bombed such a place. 'There is no military target here, there is no paramilitary target here, and this is the question that I am raising,' he told Arab News. 'Just take a look around,' he said, gesturing toward the mosque. 'This is a place of worship. India is the signatory of the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian agreements. Still they have done this to us.'
Mint
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Operation Sindoor: Not just 9, but there are 21 ‘well-known' terror camps in Pakistan, PoK; govt shares full list
The Indian government and the armed forces shared a list of 21 "well-known training camps" located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in a press briefing on Wednesday. "Over the last three decades, Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure. It is a complex web of recruitment and indoctrination centres, training areas for initial and refresher courses and launchpads for handlers," the Indian armed forces said. The Ministry of Defence earlier confirmed that nine terror camps were targeted in a mission that has been code-named "Operation Sindoor". Later, the officials shared 21 "well-known training camps" distributed from Sawai Nala in the North to Bahawalpur in the South. Nine of these terror camps were targeted under Operation Sindoor -- which was launched by the Indian armed forces and lasted 25 minutes. Sawai Nala Syed Na Bilal Maskar-E-Aqsa Chelabandi Abdullah Bin Masood Dulai Garhi Habibullah Batrasi Balakot Oghi Boi Sensa Gulpur Kotli Barali Dungi Barnala Mehmoona Joya Sarjal Muridke Bahawalpur Operation Sindoor: Here is the list of nine terror facility locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that were successfully neutralised: 1. Markaz Subhan Allah, Bahawalpur - JeM 2. Markaz Taiba, Muridke - LeT 3. Sarjal, Tehra Kalan - JeM 4. Mehmoona Joya, Sialkot - HM 5. Markaz Ahle Hadith, Barnala - LeT 6. Markaz Abbas, Kotli - JeM 7. Maskar Raheel Shahid, Kotli - HM 8. Shawai Nalla Camp, Muzaffarabad - LeT 9. Syedna Bilal Camp, Muzaffarabad - JeM
