Water policy draft to be tabled in CCI

ISLAMABAD: The four federating units are all set to take up the Pakistan’s first ever national water policy (NWP) on March 21 in the meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) as the cabinet has already given a go-ahead for presentation of the policy draft before supreme decision making body.

According to the official agenda for the meeting, CCI headed by Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi will take up the draft of the policy which was finally prepared by the Planning Commission (PC) after taking inputs from stakeholders for approval. In case of approval by CCI, this will be the first ever Pakistan’s NWP.

Provencal chief ministers have been invited to attend the meeting. Apart from the NWP, the CCI will also take up a report of the oversight committee of senators for five percent validation exercise of census results.

The PC deputy chairman briefed the cabinet meeting on March 13 about the issues relating to water management and the water policy that aims at the introduction of integrated water management for addressing water-related challenges.

The policy addresses issues relating to enhancing water storage capacity, conservation, research and development, capacity building of existing administrative departments, allocation of financial resources and establishment of the institutional set-up at provincial levels. In case the CCI approves the NWP, provinces will carve out their own water implementation policies.