World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) and Centre of Water Informatics and Technology (WIT) of Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS) signed a MoU to create responsible strategies and work towards increasing water security and stewardship in the country.
The formal agreement was signed by WWF-Pakistan Director General Hammad Naqi Khan and LUMS Rector Dr Sohail Naqvi. The MoU forges a partnership of two years between the organisation and the institute, starting from April 2017 and ending in December 2019.
According to the MoU, WWF-Pakistan will extend opportunities of collaboration in water stewardship and water security issues pertaining to agriculture, habitats, and engagement in the Indus basin.
Furthermore, the organisation will collaborate with LUMS in initiatives regarding policy level advocacy, flood and disaster management and the possibility to implement studies conducted to ensure environmental flows in all rivers across Pakistan. This collaboration is expected to materialise over the period of time to build on WWF-Pakistan’s existing knowledge of water stewardship and security and to further extend the concept in industries, multinational corporations, the legal fraternity, academia and NGOs.
WWF-Pakistan DG Hammad Naqi Khan, speaking on the occasion said, ‘It is a matter of great pleasure, that two leading organisations are forging collaboration for research and knowledge sharing in the field of conservation. WWF-Pakistan believes that water resources should be managed intelligently and, through the organisation’s Freshwater programme, promotes sustainable development and efficient use of water. I am optimistic that the collaboration between WWF-Pakistan, a science-based organisation, and LUMS, as a resource base of global expertise, will explore new avenues together regarding water conservation and will introduce best water practices through result-driven initiatives’.
LUMS Rector Dr Sohail Naqvi expressed his pleasure over becoming part of the noble mission of conservation. ‘I welcome this opportunity, of WWF-Pakistan and LUMS coming together, to address the water woes of the country. Our institute offers its vast resource base in terms of students and youth to become torchbearers of reforms in the field of environmental conservation’.
