Science and development: ‘People with technical knowledge should come forward’

Energy and water shortages affecting 70 per cent of the country’s population.

LAHORE: “Lack of political will to address energy, water and food shortages is a cause for concern provided that the country’s population is expected to double in 25 years,” says Dr Bernard Amadei, the United States science envoy, who talked to The Express Tribune on Friday.

Amadei said his visit to Pakistan [his first] had no political agenda. “It was purely technical.” He said the purpose of his visit was to create awareness about the work being done in the US in areas related to science, engineering and technology. He said he wanted to understand the progress being made in these areas in Pakistan as well so that the two countries could work together.

He said if the problems were merely technical they would have been solved by now. “Engineers are not political decision-makers and people making decisions are often unaware of technical issues,” he said.

He said efforts should be made to bring engineers and non-engineers together and more people with technical knowledge should enter the political arena. Armadei said Pakistan had the technical know-how, skills and the resources to address water and energy shortages but lacked the will to resolve these issues.



Armadei, a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado, said the energy and water shortages were affecting almost 70 per cent of the country’s population.

“If you look at the mathematics, Pakistan’s population will double in 25 years. If that is the case, then how are you [Pakistan] going to double your water and energy resources over that period?’ he said.

“In the next two decades, Pakistan will have another 190 million people to feed. How does it plan to feed them?” he said.

“Pakistan will also have to look not just into the issues of energy and food but also shelter, water sanitation and transport,” he added.

“Here is where the role of engineering becomes both more critical and relevant. The challenge for engineering, in Pakistan, will be to focus on creating and training young people who can tackle the problems,” he said.

He said many issues in Pakistan were not limited to the country but crossed borders, for which engineers needed to be more than providers of technical solutions. They should also have an understanding of community needs.

Armadei visited Islamabad and Lahore and met officials of the Higher Education Commission and the Punjab Land Development Company.

He also visited the National University of Sciences and Technology, the University of Engineering and Technology at Taxila, Quaid-i-Azam University, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology and the Virtual University (VU).

He said some of the engineering education programmes here were excellent and students were quite eager to learn. While speaking to a delegation of students in Lahore, he advised them to look to apply to more than one engineering schools abroad.

He said he wished that water and electricity were available to every Pakistani citizen. “These are not dreams, these are possibilities,”

He said while Pakistani scientists and engineers had the solutions to their problems, collaborations were always beneficial.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2013.