KARACHI – Considering water as lifeline of Pakistan’s sustainable development, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) would organise a two-day workshop on ‘Water – Issues and Options’ in Islamabad.
In a statement issued Friday, IUCN Pakistan Education, Communication and Outreach Programme Officer George Sadiq stated that the organisation undertook a study on the issues and options for the upper and lower riparian of the Indus River and based on it and several other studies, four policy briefs were prepared including ‘Indus Water Treaty and Managing Shared Water Resources for the Benefit of Basin States’, ‘Beyond Indus Water Treaty: Groundwater and Environmental Management’, ‘Towards Kabul Water Treaty: Managing Shared Water Resources’ and ‘Pakistan Water Apportionment Accord for Resolving Inter-provincial Water Conflicts’.
“This initiative is the first of its kind aimed at scientific and non-political dialogue on water, and upper and lower riparian issues being undertaken by IUCN Pakistan,” he stated.
The programme would kick off with a two-day consultative workshop on January 18 and 19 at a hotel in Islamabad under IUCN’s Balochistan Partnerships for Sustainable Development programme, which is funded by the Netherlands embassy.
A large number of water experts would participate and deliberate on these policy papers and help finalise them before they are presented to the country’s policy makers.
Dr Shahid Ahmad, a renowned natural resource expert having Agricultural Engineering doctorate with specialisation in Water Management, would present the draft policy briefs for discussion and feedback.
IUCN Asia Regional Water and Wetlands Programme Coordinator Ganesh Pangare would also make a presentation on the regional perspective about the Upper-Lower Riparian.
