NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS), one of the leading university-based think tanks of Pakistan, organised a high-level roundtable, "Managing the Waters: Appraising the Problems & Ways Forward,". Besides policy researchers, academics and students, the roundtable was attended by eminent personalities and experts from Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh. It dealt at length with the problems and challenges associated with national water resources development, management and governance.
In his opening remarks, Lieutenant-General Naweed Zaman (Retd), Rector NUST & Patron NIPS, stated that the inefficient use of water across the board had, inter alia, caused Pakistan to become a severely water-stressed country. He said the current unsustainable patterns of national water use, if not revised radically, could make Pakistan water-scarce in future.
He advised that a water-saving approach is required to be promoted at all levels of society. The Rector also highlighted the contribution of NUST to awareness-raising through regular community and youth initiatives aimed at efficient water consumption by individuals and households.
Engr Suleman Najib Khan, a noted water expert, in his meticulously researched presentation, exposed India's blatant water aggression as well as the flawed nature of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty which, in his estimation, was never meant to be a Pakistan-friendly treaty.
He further said that Pakistan should aggressively highlight the issue on international platforms.
Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), presented the problems of Pakistan's inland water resources.
He said Pakistan had the fourth largest groundwater resources in the world after India, the US, and China but they were not the best managed. He maintained that the construction of small and medium dams was needed along with large dams, adding there was a further need to increase water use efficiency by at least 30 percent by producing more crop per drop through use of new technologies.-PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019