ISLAMABAD: In the wake of recent floods and resulting damages across Pakistan, the World Wide Fund for Nature Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) on Wednesday urged the need to act immediately to strengthen national response towards climate induced natural hazards which posed a grave threat to critical habitats, natural capital, people and their livelihood.
Under the ambit of the Australia-Pakistan Water Security Initiative (APWASI), WWF-Pakistan organized a City-Wide Partnership Forum on Urban Water Management to address the challenges of surface and ground water management and improve water governance, a new release said.
The Forum aimed at promoting open and constructive dialogue on priority water risks by mobilizing resources, fostering new partnerships, adopting locally-driven solutions, and making measurable improvements towards sustainable water use and water stewardship in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The forum, comprising of a network of public, private, and civil society actors, developed a common understanding of water risks in the twin cities, highlighted key priority water risks and pinned down instrumental strategies to mitigate these risks.
Director General WWF-Pakistan, Hammad Naqi Khan stated that for a country like Pakistan, the climate crisis was a water crisis. The recent floods have strongly enforced that proper water management should be our priority. The need for adoption of Nature Based Solutions has become crucial to climate change mitigation and adaptation. “Efforts such as APWASI are supporting the demonstration of Water Sensitive interventions which can be replicated and up scaled at the city level to improve overall urban water management.”
The dialogue also shed light on the scope and applicability of the Water Sensitive Cities (WSCs) vision for Pakistan. WSCs is an adoption of the Nature-Based Approach (NbA) that talks about the holistic management of the water cycle to make the cities more liveable, resilient, sustainable and productive. An overview of APWASI along with the success stories from the demonstration sites were also shared with the participants.
Acting First Secretary Development, Australian High Commission, John Snobar lauded efforts of all project partners and government departments including CDA, WASA Rawalpindi and Ministry of Water Resources for supporting APWASI and its activities. He also mentioned that this year’s monsoon rains have cost more than 1, 000 lives and 33 million people have been affected in the current floods in Pakistan. He informed that the Australian Foreign Minister has announced $2 million in urgent humanitarian assistance in response to the devastating floods in Pakistan.
Furthermore, he shared that so far, 100 rainwater harvesting systems and three filtration plants have been installed under the APWASI and hoped that this would be the starting point for promoting the adoption of the Water Sensitive Cities vision in Pakistan.
Deputy Director General Water Management, CDA Sardar Khan Zimri expressed his support for the project activities and appreciated the efforts of WWF-Pakistan for improving access to clean drinking water in Farash Town. He also shared that CDA is focusing on integrating sustainable water management in its development programs.
A panel discussion on Urban Water Management in the twin cities was organized, which included Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, PCRWR; Tanya Khan, Team Lead
Technical Assistance on Urban Flood Management, APWASI; Aisha Sarwari, Director, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca Cola Pakistan; and Muhammad Tanveer, Managing Director, WASA Rawalpindi as panelists.
Conclusively, the City-Wide Partnership Forum will serve as a springboard for the exchange of ideas, information and lessons learned and will facilitate government in informed policy and decision making on urban water crisis.