President for attitudinal shift to conserve water, energy

President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday urged the need to bring about an attitudinal shift from rapid consumption to conserving water and energy enabling Pakistan to overcome its financial and economic difficulties.

Addressing the opening plenary of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute's (SDPI) 25th sustainable development conference in Islamabad, the president said that the country could save 3000 to 4000 megawatts of electricity by closing businesses early at night.

Similarly, he said, the country could also save precious rain and flood water, and reuse it for agriculture and other purposes by making small and big water reservoirs.

The president said: "Our attitudes should be targeted towards reducing waste reduction and littering our unnecessary desires and wants and striving to live a happy life based upon our cherished religious and Islamic values of love for ourselves, for family, neighbours, humanity, and nation without hating other nations and love for all creations, both living and non-living, and love for Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and Allah Almighty.

He called for bringing meaningful changes in people's attitudes to overcome the country's economic and financial issues and lay down a strong foundation for a happy life. He said now that the floods were over, the country was entering into the rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas and flood victims in most parts of the country.

“We need to adapt ourselves to the expected changes brought about by climate change and create a resilient society, which is capable of adaption to the changes in the environment and successfully coming out of natural disasters induced by climate change and global warming,” he added.

President Alvi, apprising the audience about the various stages of handling crises and issues, said it started by recognising the issue, creating a baseline, factoring in past experiences, and benchmarking good practices within the country and around the world.

He said: “We should define our goals, set KPIs and a timeline and then put our minds and resources into the set goal.” The president said climate change required limiting climate change and global warming. “We need attitudinal change and total commitment to the timeline, which currently the world is not ready to do,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2022.