ISLAMABAD – Caretaker Federal Minister for Nationwide Meals Safety and Analysis Dr Kausar Abdullah Malik has harassed the necessity for collective efforts to deal with the challenges of local weather change, water safety, and meals safety in Pakistan.
“Residents should take steps to guard water sources to realize sustainable growth,” the minister stated whereas addressing individuals of a Pre-COP 28 convention on “Accelerating the Water-Meals Local weather Nexus Transformation Pathways for Pakistan” organised by the Worldwide Water Administration Institute (IWMI) in Islamabad on Monday.
He talked about that efforts have been underway to implement laser land levelling know-how to minimise water utilization in irrigation whereas additionally selling water security. He additionally emphasised the necessity to elevate public consciousness in regards to the significance of water and its security.
Dr. Kausar additional highlighted the significance of water security to enhance agriculture, meals methods, and financial growth. He warned that failure to take fast and daring measures may lead to additional deterioration of water safety.
Mark Smith, Director Normal of IWMI, identified that though Pakistan solely accounts for a negligible share of worldwide emissions, the nation bears a disproportionate burden of the impacts of local weather change.
In his inaugural tackle, Dr Mark recognized that though Pakistan is accountable for lower than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, it’s nonetheless ranked because the eighth most weak nation to the local weather disaster. He defined that round 92% of Pakistan is classed as semi-arid to arid, and many of the inhabitants depends on restricted water sources from rivers and aquifers.
“We are going to help the Ministry of Local weather Change in making a place paper on water and local weather change for CoP28. The federal government, policymakers, and provinces of Pakistan should work collectively to fight local weather change,” he added.
On the event, British Excessive Commissioner Jane Marriott OBE emphasised the significance of implementing local weather resilience methods in Pakistan, which is taken into account one of many topmost climate-vulnerable international locations and ranks 32nd in preparedness. She highlighted the necessity to tackle the challenges of meals and water governance, gender equality, and poverty discount within the nation by tackling the impacts of local weather change. Marriott added that the UK is supporting Pakistan in its efforts to deal with these challenges.
She talked about that the UK will put money into AI-powered options to deal with local weather change in Pakistan, the place Lahore has been declared essentially the most polluted metropolis and Pakistan ranks third amongst international locations battling this challenge.
Ms. Danielle Cashen, Deputy Excessive Commissioner of the Australian Excessive Fee, said that Pakistan is dealing with extreme water shortage. By 2025, solely 36% of the inhabitants could have entry to soundly managed water and only one% of wastewater will likely be handled.
“Water, local weather change and meals safety are interconnected and multisectoral options are wanted to assist Pakistan overcome these challenges
“Australia and Pakistan work collectively on agriculture inside water scarce and salinity affected landscapes. Collectively we examine adaptation methods and instruments with communities and farmers to supply clear & and constant seasonal water allocation throughout the Indus Basin,” she added.
Poland’s Ambassador Maciej Pisarski, on the occasion, harassed the significance of specializing in points that matter to each Poland and Pakistan to broaden cooperation between the 2 international locations. He steered that addressing local weather change collectively may present a mess of alternatives for collaboration.
He shared how Polish Water Applied sciences will help in addressing climate-related challenges. The partnership between Polish Water Applied sciences and IWMI can provide a complete resolution to Pakistan’s local weather points. This consists of the availability of cost-effective and environment friendly water purification applied sciences, the development of eco-friendly wastewater therapy crops, and the reinforcement of flood prevention measures in Pakistan by Polish firms.
On the event, Kate Somvongsiri, Mission Director for USAID, said that addressing local weather change is a world problem that requires constructing linkages throughout populations, geographies, organizations, and sectors. She emphasised that the US authorities is dedicated to this method.
Whereas concluding the convention, Dr Mohsin Hafeez, director IWMI, stated local weather change poses a big menace to our water, meals, vitality, and environmental methods. Sadly, the best way our authorities departments and provinces are using water sources is insufficient to deal with Pakistan’s complicated vary of challenges. Therefore, we should enhance governance in all sectors to beat these challenges.
