Federal Minister Dr. Musadik Malik addressed a conference hosted by the World Wide Fund for Nature to mark 25 years of work for the Indus River Dolphin, warning that rising temperatures and accelerating glacier melt are direct consequences of unchecked pollution and broader climate change. He linked the health of river ecosystems to national resilience and called for urgent steps to halt further degradation.
Dr. Malik expressed particular alarm over the deteriorating water quality of the River Ravi, saying it has become too polluted for agricultural use and is far from being safe for drinking. He highlighted the wider economic and human toll of climate-driven disasters, noting that recent floods have caused losses exceeding 9.5 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. The minister underlined the devastating human cost, reporting that more than 4,700 people have died and over 17,000 have been left disabled across the last four major floods, a toll he said surpasses casualties from any single war in the nation’s history.
While praising WWF’s long-standing conservation efforts, Dr. Malik reaffirmed the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination’s full support and commitment to close cooperation on biodiversity protection and environmental sustainability. He stressed that saving the Indus River Dolphin is not merely an environmental task but a moral obligation, calling it “a matter of protecting life and humanity.”
