KARACHI: An intense water scarcity is feared to trigger displacement of 700 million people worldwide by 2030, whereas over two billion people living in countries are faced with a high water stress, the WWF-Pakistan experts warned on Monday.
“But globally water demand is projected to increase by 55 percent by 2050, mainly due to growing demands from the manufacturing sector,” WWF-Pakistan experts said during an event on World Water Day 2021 held virtually.
They said approximately 50 litres of water per person per day needed to ensure that most basic needs are met.
World Water Day is celebrated every year to emphasize on the importance of freshwater resources and shed light on the global water crisis and inspire people to take action for safeguarding this invaluable but a limited resource.
Sharing his comments, WWF-Pakistan DG Hammad Naqi Khan said “Pakistan’s per capita water availability has reduced from 5,600 m3(the 1950s) to less than 1,000 m3”.
Climate change is directly impacting our resources that means there will be changes in water in terms of hydrology with increased number of floods and drought events.
Despite this we are contaminating our rivers due to a lack of water treatment systems in major metropolitans, he said adding “to address these issues, we must value our water resources.”
“WWF-Pakistan has taken various initiatives in collaboration with the government, private sector and other stakeholders for water conservation and replenishment such as recharge wells, rainwater harvesting, floodplain management, floating wetlands among others,” he added.
Besides these initiatives, WWF-Pakistan, with the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) and Federal Flood Commission (FFC) under the Ministry of Water Resources, has launched a programme titled ‘Recharge Pakistan: Building Pakistan’s Resilience to Climate Change through Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for Integrated Flood Risk Management’ with a 30-year vision.
The project will undertake Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) interventions nationwide, build the resilience of communities and enable the government and relevant stakeholders to implement and replicate EbA work, providing a cumulative approach to build climate change resilience.
The proposed three pronged EbA approach includes: ecosystem-based flood management through wetland restoration (including diverting and storing floodwaters from the Indus River), hill-torrent management, and green infrastructures; community-based natural resource management, climate-adapted livelihoods and risk reduction; and a paradigm shift to scale up the EbA approach in policy, planning, and practices across the country.
The project’s proposed sites are scattered along a 1,500 km stretch of the Indus River, from Tarbela Dam (in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province) to Kotri Barrage (in Sindh Province).
Speaking about other water-related interventions WWF-Pakistan is working on, Sohail Ali Naqvi, Senior Manager Freshwater Programme, WWF-Pakistan said that efforts are being made to provide safe drinking water to local communities through the installation of water filtration plants.
He also shared that campaigns were undertaken to build the capacity of civil society organizations to revitalize the ecosystem of river basins in Pakistan.
WWF-Pakistan’s water stewardship approach aims to promote the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) through collective action. In this regard, businesses are supported to identify their risks and commit to responsible water usage through the transformation of practices.
Naqvi said WWF-Pakistan has been actively involved in the protection of ecology of freshwater bodies in high conservation value areas of Pakistan through initiatives such as conservation of the Indus River Dolphin, conducting ecological baseline studies and conserving wetlands of Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021