Experts For Sustainable Water Management To Ensure Effective Ecosystem

Speakers including decision-makers, water experts, students, institutions, community members and youth at a conference held here Wednesday in connection with International Water Day underlined the need of sustainable water management for an effective ecosystem.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Mar, 2018 ) :Speakers including decision-makers, water experts, students, institutions, community members and youth at a conference held here Wednesday in connection with International Water Day underlined the need of sustainable water management for an effective ecosystem.

The event was organized by the Institute of Public Policy, Riphah International University Islamabad in collaboration with Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources ICIMOD, ECOSF, CCRD and UNESCO has convene World Water Day at Pakistan Council for Reasearch on Water Resources (PCRWR), a news release said.

It also provided a platform for exchange of experiences and dialogue to address water issues. A poster competition on water conservation, waste water management was also organized in which students presented their research work on the said topics.

The Speakers including Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, PCRWR, Lt. General Omar Mahmood Hayat, Chairman, NDMA, Hassan Muhammad Khan, Chancellor, Riphah International University, Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, Country Representative, IUCN, Dr Abdul Majid, Country Representative, ICARDA, Ms.

Vibeke Jensen, Director, UNESCO Islamabad, Khalil Raza ECOSF Ahmed Kamal, Chairman, FFC Dr Abdul Wahid Jasra, Country Representative, ICIMOD Dr Ghulam Rasool, DG, PMD attended the event. Speaking on the occasion, Chancellor Riphah International University Hassan Muhammad Khan said that "Nature for Water" provides an important opportunity of exploring nature based solutions for various water challenges.

On the occasion, Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, PCRWR said that water is not only a life sustaining resource but also accounted for social well-being and economic prosperity adding that it plays an important role in managing healthy ecosystem.

Besides the fact that plenty of water is found on the surface of earth, only 2.5 percent is available as freshwater, he said adding that the floods and droughts, are considered as major water challenges for 21st century globally.

Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt.General Omar Mahmood Hayat said that the phenomenon like global warming and climate change further aggravates the severity of these challenges.

The speakers said that the climatic analysis dictate that the amount of rainfall has been increased annually however, the rainfall is mostly not available when it is critically required for crops to grow healthy.

On contrary, the heavy rainfall triggers flash flooding which not only damages infrastructure, property and crops but causes unrecoverable loss of important lives of people, they added. The tsunami and other recent flooding events occurred in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China is the worst examples of these disasters, speakers said.

There is a need that ecosystem management must be effectively pursued which not only offers an opportunity to strengthen natural infrastructure and human resilience against hazard impacts, but also generates a range of other social, economic and environmental benefits for multiple stakeholders, which in turn reduce risk, they emphasized.