The lack of a river hydrologist or a morphologist has caused wastage of river resources in the country due to lack of expertise.
Addressing the opening session of an international workshop on ‘Flood Risk Mapping using Spatial Technologies’, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Water and Agriculture Kamal Majeedullah said that wastage of water had hindered progress in the country.
The workshop was organised by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in collaboration with Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD), the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Federal Flood Commission.
The workshop is part of the UNESCO project on ‘Strengthening Flood Warning and Management Capacity in Pakistan’, funded by Japan through JICA.
Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Hiroshi Oe told participants that Japan had contributed $3.6 million to Pakistan through the UNESCO, which was developing institutional capacity and increasing resilience mechanisms to deal with floods.
UNESCO Director Dr Kozue Kay Nagata said, “The project is on track for achieving its objectives, I am happy to share that we have made significant progress towards GSMAP and IFAS modelling of the Indus catchments, which is a key deliverable of the project”. He said that the first version of the knowledge platform for timely national, provincial and district level data sharing was functional.
Pakistan lacks expertise to control water wastage
