Minister tasks experts with water policy roadmap

ISLAMABAD: Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, the caretaker federal minister for water resources, on Wednesday stressed it was important to draft guidelines for an implementation plan of the national water policy considering the prevalent conditions of water scarcity in the country.

“The experts should come up with their well-prepared suggestions to draw a roadmap with the purpose to better address country’s valuable water issues, within the guidance of National Water Policy,” the minister said addressing the first meeting of the National Water Taskforce.

This consultative meeting was jointly organised by the ministry of water resources and federal flood commission in collaboration with UNESCO.

Dr Shahbaz Khan, director UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, presented key points of the draft roadmap to the minster.

Khan pointed out that dams and artificial recharge of aquifers were urgently needed but increased water storage capacity of Pakistan could not solve the problem alone.

“There must be a focus on improved governance, trans-boundary data availability and more extensive water losses analysis is needed to confirm seasonal water loss, availability, and requirements on provincial basis,” he said.

Khan presented a 3-pillar, 10-year draft plan for a water-secure Pakistan.

Those three pillars include water infrastructure (dams and artificial recharge of aquifers), governance according to 21st century

water management standards, and technology for water resilience & water efficiency.

The statement issued by the ministry said the water minister had issued directions to constitute a high-level National Taskforce to prepare a roadmap for

water-secure Pakistan as the country has become a

water-stressed state with per capita annual water availability dropping from 5,260

cubic meters in 1947 to less than 1,000 cubic meters in 2018.