Peshawar
A one-day seminar on “climate change in water resources of Pakistan: Challenges and opportunities” was held here today. The seminar was organized by the Department of Agricultural Engineering UET Peshawar.
The Chairman Prof Dr. Zia ul Haq opened the seminar said, as part of outreach programme the seminar was aimed to create awareness on climate change and share the latest trends on climate change impact mitigation and adaptation strategies with young researchers and academicians.
Engr. Muhammad Nawaz, Water Resources Management Specialist USAID, with thirty years of field experience in water resource management and Alumnus of Department of Agricultural Engineering UET Peshawar was the guest speaker.
He said, Pakistan is blessed with a unique geographical location with a vigorous monsoon system and a robust network of rivers however, climate changes over the last few years have put the country at risk especially the water resource management systems.
He said, there is a need to adopt different approaches to put the country out of water crisis as it was noticed in South Africa in 2018 when the country reached to “zero day”.
He said, Pakistan has more 8 % water resources for 1 percent of population as compared to China. India and other South Asian countries, but the question is how Pakistan can transform the massive blue potential into blue economy.
The speaker highlighted the need for including climate change as an essential factor in project designing analysis and part of curriculum of agricultural engineering education.
He stressed the young researchers to come up with practical and market driven research so that development sector would work jointly and support them.
He urged the engineers to take other factors, environment, institutions, market needs and service delivery systems while designing water systems management.
And in all these, he said, “good governance” is the crucial need where engineers must be cognizant for recommending right policy options to secure the availability of water for all stakeholders.
The speaker was of the view that floods are not the “catastrophe “only, ‘there is a need to change our perception and beliefs as every crisis brings opportunity”, adding, “floods could be turned into opportunity where every citizen should act as a strong influencer at grass root level such as, storing this flood water into water ponds and practical purposes. Only Governments and Multinational agencies would not be sufficient to come up with mega projects”, he remarked.
At the end, Dean Basic Sciences Prof Dr Siraj ul Islam appreciated the efforts of Department of Agricultural Engineering for holding a seminar on an important issue.
Earlier, the students and faculty exchanged ideas for joint research and linkages in the fields of climate change and water resource management. At the end, Prof Dr Zia ul Haq presented the souvenir to the guest speaker.
