Peshawar - Upper Indus Basin Network-Pakistan Chapter (UIBNPC), a think tank of experts formed by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD),
has laid stress on protection and conservation
of Indus Basis from the impacts of climate change and
global warming.
The call was made during first general meeting
of Pakistan Chapter of UIBN held to review progress
of Technical Working Groups and their future
plans of action, says a press release issued here on
Sunday.
“The trans-boundary Indus River basin, shared
by Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan is ranked
among the world’s most significant basins in term of
human dependency on its water resources and agriculture
livelihood, therefore special focus need to be
given to this natural resource from protecting it from
impacts of climate change and over exploitation due
to population bulge,” observed a gathering of over
100 experts during the meeting.
Muhammad Riaz, Director General of Pakistan Meteorological
Department and coordinator of UIBNPC,
welcomed the participants during his inaugural
speech. He elaborated how climate change is adversely
affecting the entire ecosystem.
Ghulam Rasul of ICIMOD informed that Upper Indus
Basin was cry sphere of Pakistan that could not
be isolated, and an integrated approach was required
to assess and combat the changing climate.
In his key note remarks, Khalid Mohtadullah, Chair
of UIBN said: “Indus Basin is home to nearly 215 million
people and has seven main rivers originating
from glaciers and snow filed in the Western Himalaya,
Karakoram and the Hindu Kush.”
“The river is source of 96 per cent of irrigation water
for over 16 million hectares of agriculture land,
providing water to around 36 million acres of land in
Pakistan. It also has potential to provide 60,000 MW
of hydropower to the energy insecure country,” he
went on to say.
Keeping in view of economic benefits from Upper
Indus Basin, it will be suitable to say that our country’s
economy is `water economy’, he remarked.
He suggested for collaboration among beneficiary
countries for launching a concerted effort to understand
and share the ongoing changes in the UIB
and provide viable adaptation or mitigation solutions.
Federal Flood Commission Chairman Ahmad Kamal
said his department was engage with World Bank
over evaluating losses to Indus Basin due to stresses
on resources from changing demographics and climatic
conditions. He further requested the forum to
provide recommendations to all relevant ministries
which would help in devising implementation frame
works for different national policies.
Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Office Shozab
Abbas Director General linked water scarcity with
mismanagement of water resources in Pakistan.
He hoped that UIBN-PC could steer the scientific research
and solutions to changing climate.
Experts in UIBN-PC after holding threadbare discussion
also shared suggestions, including awareness
of communities, sharing of information on media especially
social media, awareness of policy makers
about threats to Indus Basin, increasing research
work of scholars on hydrology, glaciers and agriculture
etc.
Muhammad Mudassar Maqsood of ICIMOD summarised
the proceedings and emphasised that the
future action plans of UIBN-PC must be integrated
national policies so that each member organisation
might help the government in implementation of national
policies in true sense.
The second day of meeting focused on theory of
change of UIBN-PC which actually taught the participants
on “how to achieve the objectives of UIBN-PC”.
The session was presided over by Atta Ullah Shah of
Karakorum International University. While Farid Ahmad
of ICIMOD presented the theory of change which
latter on was incorporated by the technical working
groups in their future action plans.
