‘Businesses can suffer if people fail to conserve water’
He was speaking at ceremony organised by the WWF-Pakistan (WWF-P) to mark the official launch of the report, Situation Analysis of the Water Resources of Lahore, and a dialogue on city-wide partnership on water stewardship. Linstead said the fund was looking at ways to promote better water and energy management within and beyond fence-line operations.
Director-General Hammad Naqi said the initiative had been taken to promote water efficient production and consumption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by implementing best water management practices. He said the fund had gained vital insights regarding water challenges confronting the nation by interacting with the stakeholders and the Water Stewardship Project. Naqi said this had made the fund cognisant of various opportunities for improvement in the sector.
Trade Related Technical Assistance III Programme Head of Cooperation Bernard Francois stressed the importance of sustainable water consumption.
He said all stakeholders must strive to understand the physical, regulatory and institutional challenges confronting the city in the sector. Francois said the European Union (EU) was aware of the importance of water with regard to building and sustaining an industrial economy. He said the initiative would enable SMEs to adopt best water management practices. Francois said these could be later replicated nation-wide.
Asad Sarwar Qureshi, a water management specialist, presented the findings of the report.
He said water use for domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes in Lahore stood at 3.79, 0.92, 0.77 and 1.70 Million Cubic Metres (MCMs) per day, respectively. Qureshi said this was obtained from groundwater. He said the city’s water table was dropping by 0.55 metres annually due to excessive extraction. Qureshi said the report had also pointed out that the city was generating 8 MCM waste water per day that was released in River Ravi without being treated.
A brainstorming session was held later to formulate a city-wide partnership to manage the water resources. WWF-P Water Security and Stewardship Manager Ali Husnain Syed and Linstead conducted the session. Government officials, business representatives and academics exchanged views in this regard.
Former Punjab Water Council president Hamid Malhi said raising public awareness was crucial in this regard. He said this was the biggest challenge confronting the stakeholders. He said half the challenges confronting them would be overcome if people were made aware about the importance of water conservation and management.
He said government officials, academics, business representatives and union leaders had a crucial role in this regard.
Roshan Ara, a development adviser for the EU, said success in raising public awareness would have a positive impact on subsequent developments and would make the plan sustainable.
She said developing projects in this part of the world was relatively straightforward, the real challenge lay in making them sustainable. Ara said it was imperative to educate women to ensure that the coming generation learnt the ideas from them. She proposed the creation of a training programme for women in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2014.
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