Commenting on the COVID crisis, and whether youth will be thinking about climate resilience now, Maitreyi Koduganti Venkata says: "In times of crises like this, what everyone thinks of is to keep our loved ones safe, keep our families safe. The idea of climate resilience is perhaps not even on the agenda, but that doesn't mean that it's not there at all. The climate protests are still happening, people are still voicing their concerns, it's just on a different platform. An abandonment of this issue has the potential to worsen certain circumstances.”
The Cholistan Desert area is one of the largest deserts in Pakistan and is home to a semi-nomadic population and their livestock. The primary source of income for Cholistan is cattle breeding. The climate of the desert area, with scanty and unpredictable rainfall as well as long periods of drought, makes water a limited resource. To address the issue of water shortages and to secure access of water to livestock, the people of Cholistan have created water ponds, called “tobas”. However, due to their vulnerability to extreme weather conditions and infiltration, the ponds storage capacities are low. There are around 1500 water points (tobas) in the entire desert out of only 500 were in running condition. Most tobas are not constructed in proper places because their present localities have not been identified on scientific basis to receive maximum rainwater.