Culture of water conservation stressed

LAHORE

The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Tuesday organised a ceremony at Wapda House to mark the World Water Day. 

Addressing the ceremony, Wapda Chairman highlighted the significance of water for life. Besides enhancing water storage capacity in Pakistan, the culture of water conservation in all walks of life will have to be adopted to avoid water scarcity in the country. All stakeholders, intellectuals and media in particular, will have to play their role to promote a culture of water conservation through its prudent use, he added.

The chairman said rapid growth in our population has been adversely impacting per capita availability of water in Pakistan, adding per capita availability of water which used to be 8182 cubic metre in 1947, has decreased to an alarming level of 1032 cubic metre in 2016, turning Pakistan into a water stressed country. He said if population growth remains unchecked and water reservoirs are not constructed, the Pakistan will become a water starved country. 

The chairman said annual river flows in Pakistan stands at about 145 million acre feet on the average, of which 80pc is available in 100 days from April to August. This erratic pattern of river flows necessitates construction of more dams so that water could be made available throughout the year, he added. The chairman apprised the audience that Pakistan has only 10 percent storage capacity of the annual water flows against the world average of 40 percent. This carry over facility is sufficient only for 30 days. Emphasising upon the need for water pricing, he said monetary value will have to be added to water to check wastage of water.  He said as many as 10 MAF of water can be saved by lining the canals located in saline areas. Together with conserving water through this sort of measures and constructing more water reservoirs, we can bring about 20 million acres of more land under plough. 

He highlighted other challenges faced by the water sector including level of aquifer and deterioration of its quality, absence of regulation for extracting ground water, low water charges, high delta crops, cropping pattern and low productivity of water.

Later, Wapda member (Water) Muhammad Shoaib Iqbal, member (Power) Badr-ul-Munir Murtiza and member (Finance) Anwar-ul-Haq apprised the audience about water sector, hydropower sector and financial strategies for Wapda projects, respectively. University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar spoke of need to introduce technology for future water requirements.

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Dr Abu Bakr Muhammad highlighted the importance of building smart water grid for Indus Basin in Pakistan, while Wapda Adviser Abdul Khaliq Khan briefed the audience about initiatives for water security.

Intellectuals and writers namely Munnoo Bhai, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Wasif Nagi, Munir Baloch, Tahir Sarwar Mir and Sughra Sadaf, in their brief deliberations, underlined the need to conserve water.

Later, cash prizes and certificates were presented to the winners of poetry, essay-writing and poster-making competitions organised by Wapda about water conservation. 

EPD: Environment Protection Department (EPD), Punjab celebrated World Water Day by highlighting the importance of water here Tuesday.

Provincial Minister for Environment Zakia Shahnawaz was the chief guest at a seminar organised by EPD.

She said that water is certainly important for the socio-economic sustenance and development of any country especially for Pakistan that has agriculture based economy.

She mentioned that water resources of the country were subject to all kinds of quantitative and qualitative issues, which needed to be addressed on priority basis.